Lost and Found
by Jules In Neverland
Summary: Somewhere in Pakistan, a soldier gets lost and beaten up. Somewhere in India, an archeologist has found a wounded soldier and it's willing to die for her. Somehow, their stories connect and refuse to separate, and they'll confront adventures, romance, dangers and dramas together, standing strong against their enemies in the way to resolve mystery and find each other again and again
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to my brand new fanfic! I think it's an exciting adventure filled with action, adventure, romance, drama and angst, and it's bechloe and jaubrey, so what better? Feel free to leave reviews, they're gladly appreciated._

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 **Chapter 1: Between sand and dirtiness.**

The small town of Kakrola, Delhi (India) woke up particularly cold enough that January 4th, 2016, or at least that's what two twenty six year old thought as they entered the car early around two in the morning. They had a long day ahead on the road on their way to Depalpur, Pakistan, where they had to go for something related with their job as archeologists. They wouldn't take less than ten hours on the road, and it wasn't the safest trip in the world since Pakistan was in war with like everybody, so they would try to make it as fast as possible and go with their eyes wide open.

"Aubrey must be angry you're spending the whole day out on a trip while she's in New Delhi working her ass off at that hospital." The woman of the two said looking with a smirk at her mate as they got comfortable in the car and the man started the engine.

He was a handsome, tall and skinny boy, with a dark brown beard, a thick brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He had a kind smile and looked athletic. As for the girl who was looking at him with a smirk and playful glance while he drove, she was a skinny, shorter redhead, with gorgeous light blue eyes and a very light skin. He was wearing a sweater and a jacket, old jeans and boots, while she was wearing a scarf, a coat, old jeans and boats, her hair was free. Each had a big bag and a suitcase, and those rested in the trunk.

The boy smiled kindly at the redhead, looking at her for a moment before turning his sight back to the road in front of them, as he drove through the small town and crossed the Najafgarh Drain he had gotten too used to, to be disgusted by now.

"She was more worried that something would happen to us and I wasn't wearing enough clothes than anything else." He replied with a chuckle, and the redhead let go a guffaw "So, Beale, have you brought any good music for this road trip?"

"Sure thing, Swanson." The woman, Beale, looked through the pockets of her brown jacket and found a small cassette, putting it into the car's cassette entry, and soon the pair was singing out loud the songs, the worries in the back of their minds for now.

The two archeologists took turns to drive the car towards Pakistan, using the resting times to take small naps from time to time, also feeling a bit guilty for being asleep while the other was driving. However, only a bit past noun they reached their destination near some ruins at the same time they finished their last sandwiches. They got entertained with work until late in the afternoon, and as they walked back to their car, tired and carrying their heavy bags, the redhead stopped her friend.

"What?" he asked her with a puzzled look. By all answer, she, with the saddest expression and glassy eyes, pointed to a lump near the road, half hidden in a gap that a wall of a building had formed. The boy already knew his friend wasn't still used and would probably never be used to the fact that Pakistan was in war and sometimes those things happened. They found dead bodies in India too. He put a gently arm around his friend "It's okay Chlo… he's dead. Let's go home, okay? We'll see some Disney movie while we have dinner." The redhead was about to follow him back to the car when she shook her head and started walking quickly towards the lump "Chloe!"

"If he's dead, he deserves a proper burial Jesse, not to root in the middle of the street and be eaten by rats!" Chloe yelled back with her eyes fixed on the lump. Jesse sighed and ran towards her. This wasn't the first time something like that happened and he knew arguing was a loss of time.

Approaching the body, Chloe gasped realizing the gravel under their feet was covered in blood stains. When she got closer, she realized he was a she, judging by the shoulder length brown hair that formed a perfect tangled mess, and that she was also a soldier who had probably been attacked and stripped from her belongings. She was bare feet, and her feet were dirty and covered in small injuries, the skin of the sole a bit teared. Her pants were military, green camouflage pants, and were dirty and had many holes. Her hair covered her face, as the girl lied on her side. She was really skinny, unhealthily skinny, she was so pale she was practically white, and seemed to have tried to protect herself in a fetal position, that was now relaxed as the girl was dead. Hands that seemed to have been gripping her camouflage jacket close to protect herself from the cold had now let her body fall so her front was against the gravel, a pale hand with some blood stains and scratches lying lifelessly on the gravel, the other probably under her body. She was covered in dirtiness and blood stains.

With trembling hands and tearful eyes, Chloe took the cold hand between her own and tried to feel a pulse. She thought she could feel something, so she moved a bit her hair to press her fingers against the neck, and gasped.

"Jesse's she's alive!" Chloe yelled. Jesse was standing next to her, and kneeled "She's barely holding on. Let's bring her home and we'll try to assist her while we think what the hell to do with her."

"Right." Jesse nodded "Let's turn her face up, shall we?" Chloe nodded and slowly and carefully they pushed her back against the gravel "She's an US Army soldier!" Jesse exclaimed suddenly pointing at the patch where that could be read, that was on the chest of her jacket. In the other chest, another patch said _Mitchell_ "I think she's a Sergeant." He added, looking at the arms of the jacket, that had the symbols of her rank and stuff.

"Poor thing." Chloe said putting the hair aside of the girls' face to reveal a pale, lifeless face with dry parted lips, a bloody nose, a bloody cut on the corner of her forehead, and dust. The eyes were closed and Chloe carefully cupped the face between her hands, using a hand to palm her cheek very tenderly "Hi, wake up, wake up soldier… Come on Mitchell, open those pretty eyes of yours…" She got no answer.

"Are you sure she's alive?" Jesse asked doubtful.

"Yes. But she's freezing and she probably hasn't eaten in God knows how long, or drank anything, so she's frozen and dehydrated, and wounded. I wasn't expecting for her to open her eyes really. Give me a bottle of water." Jesse rummaged into his bag and pulled a half full plastic bottle. Chloe opened it and tried to get some water into the soldier's mouth.

"Mm…" the woman painfully grunted a bit, but was still unconscious "Rehem… rehem…" she whispered with the lowest whisper and a broken voice that broke Chloe's heart.

"What honey?" Chloe asked.

"She's speaking Urdu Chloe. That means mercy. She's asking for mercy." Jesse said in a sad voice.

"Let's bring her home."

Soon, they had her lying on the backseat, and Chloe took an old blanket from the trunk and put it over the girl, carefully tucking her. She had previously put her Chloe's own jacket on. They drove faster that time. Mitchell didn't move or flinch, not even when Jesse took her bridal style, in the morning, from the car to Chloe's apartment.

Chloe had been living in that rented apartment for almost three years, a first floor of a building that only had two floors, and she lived above a tiny fruit shop. The apartment was the tiniest and was warm only because Chloe had decorated it with her big heart to make it a home. When you entered it, you found yourself in front of the tiny kitchen, that was between a tiny bathroom and a tiny room that was used as a dinning-living room. At the other side of the bathroom was an equally tiny bedroom with its door at the end of the minuscule corridor. Jesse carefully left soldier Mitchell on the bed, and offered to stay for a bit and help Chloe out with her but Chloe sent him home. He promised he'd be back with Aubrey after a long nap.

Chloe approached the woman and sat on the verge of her big bed, next to the woman. She took a brush and brushed the soldiers' hair tenderly and softly, and then put it in a low ponytail. She felt that if the girl felt neater she would get better faster. Chloe removed her own jacket from the soldier, and then the soldier's dirty jacket, revealing a long, dark green t-shirt, with holes, just like the jacket, dirtiness and bloodstains. Chloe took some scissors and cut the t-shirt open to remove it easier. When she did so, she gasped. The woman was really skinny, her bra was broken and easily removed, her skin was covered in bruises and cuts, and worst of it, her back was completely destroyed. It seemed like she had been lashed, and her back's skin was torn and covered in dry blood that had soaked the t-shirt.

"Oh my God… what have they done to you, sweetie?" Chloe gently caressed her cheek, but the woman was still out cold. Chloe removed her pants and panties, seeing all her body was covered in bruises and cuts, but at least it didn't look like she had been rapped which was good.

Chloe had lived there enough time to have a good first aid kit, and she quickly took it. She filled a container with warm water and a little bit of soap, and sat beside Mitchell. With a towel soaked in the water, she carefully spent a good half an hour cleaning the soldier, being the most disgusting part her back, since she had to cut dead skin, and even put some bugs out of her skin. At the end, it looked pretty neat and the woman was clean and even smelled better, although without the dust, her paleness and bruises were more obvious. Chloe had a big, loose-fitting, super soft shirt, that she put on the soldier after cleaning her back properly and even stitching up the deeper cuts in her body, that were a couple on her back and one on her forehead. Mitchell's eye was a bit swollen and her cheeks were bruised, and she had a cut in the lip that had to be cleaned up. Chloe realized the soldier flinched a little when she touched one of her wrists and one of her ankles, so she bandaged them up. Also, her wrists were bruised and had chafing, like if she had been tied up, so she bandaged the other wrist too. Her knees were incredibly bruised. Then, she made sure to leave the bed neat and tuck the woman under the covers.

Chloe then took a nap for several hours and when she woke up, she realized the girl hadn't moved an inch, but she seemed to be breathing stronger, as she know could hear her breathing. She moved and tried to wake the woman up. Finally, two pale and dark blue eyes opened a little, blinking and then focusing on Chloe's light blue eyes. Chloe smiled a little at the woman.

"Good morning sweetheart." Chloe said tenderly holding her healthy hand between hers and rubbing the back of it with her thumb. The soldier frowned a little and let a breath out.

"Please..." the woman whispered with a raspy voice "Don't hurt me… just… let me die… alone…" the woman added, closing her eyes a little. Chloe's expression reflected all the sadness she was feeling, and she shook her head.

"Hey, I won't hurt you and I won't let you die alone, I promise." Chloe said kindly, whispering too "I'm Chloe, and I'm American just like you. You're on my bed, and I'm gonna take such good care of you and bring you back to health so you can go back to your home in the States. You're gonna be alright, everything is going to be fine. I promise."

The woman fixed her eyes on hers for a moment and then Chloe said her eyes got a bit glassy.

"Thank… you…" the woman whispered, and closed her eyes "Angel…" Chloe heard her say, and she smiled widely. Then, the doorbell rang.

"I'm gonna leave for just a moment, I'll be back in less than a minute." Chloe whispered rubbing a strand of hair out of her face kindly. Chloe got up and approached the door "Who is it?" she asked.

"Us!" a voice she knew all too well replied. Chloe opened the door and soon her blonde best friend was hugging her tightly, her blue eyes closed as her lips pressed against Chloe's cheek "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. And soldier Mitchell is better too." Chloe replied with a smile as they pulled apart. Jesse hugged her too and the three walked into the house, closing the door again.

"Has she woken up yet?" Doctor Aubrey Posen asked.

"Just now, but I think she drifted back to sleep. They destroyed her back Aubrey." Chloe said as they entered her bedroom "I think she was tortured. Her back is completely teared, it even had bugs, and she has cuts and bruises all over her body, but I cleaned them up. She's been shaking from time to time, so I've covered her well… but I think she's feverish."

Aubrey nodded and left her bag with her medical stuff on the floor before sitting on the verge of the bed and rummaging through the bag. She pulled out a thermometer, and she carefully put it inside the woman's mouth. Her eyes snapped open in fear and Aubrey was quick to calm her down. She cured dozens of very sick children every day.

"Sh… it's just a thermometer, it's okay. I'm Aubrey, I'm a doctor and I just want to help you." Aubrey said, and the soldier's eyes closed almost completely "100,4 degrees." Aubrey sighed cleaning the thermometer and putting it back into her bag "Well, it's not so bad. Has she thrown up or something?" she asked looking back at Chloe, who stood next to them and shook her head.

"No, nothing." Chloe replied "I doubt she has eaten or drank anything in days if not weeks, Aubrey. Well, I gave her some water, that's all." Aubrey nodded.

"I'm gonna touch you a bit, is that alright?" Aubrey whispered leaning over the soldier, who nodded.

"Just don't hurt me, please…? I… I did nothing… wrong, I swear…" Aubrey smiled a bit.

"I'm sure you didn't. I'll do my best to avoid hurting you, okay?" She opened her shirt and used her stethoscope to feel for her heart and lungs, and then palmed around her torso. The soldier winced and that's how Aubrey concluded she had three broken ribs, and swollen organs, but probably nothing big, since she hadn't thrown up blood, or coughed it, or looked yellowish. It was more like she had been beaten up quite badly. She also concluded she had a twisted ankle and wrist, and said the nose wasn't broken, that the blood was probably from the brain trauma.

"Should we take her to her hospital?" Chloe asked. Aubrey shook her head slowly.

"No… I mean, if we were in another country, yes, but the closest hospital is too many hours away and has too little doctors for the incredible amount of patients. She would be more ignored than anything and she could get typhoid fever, cholera…" she sighed "I guess she had her vaccines just like any other American soldier, but still getting her in a dirty small building filled with very sick people is not a good idea. Plus, even if I took her to New Delhi, the hospital is expensive and she doesn't even have an ID. I'll come as often as I can and she should be fine here with someone like you looking for her all the time. Unless you want me to take her to New Delhi." She added looking at Chloe.

"No, no, she will be fine here. I'll take care of her, promise." Chloe affirmed eagerly.

"Okay. I'll try to bring some meds when possible." Aubrey added and looked at the patient again "Hey, your surname is Mitchell right? Do you know your name sweetie?" Mitchell opened her eyes and looked at Aubrey with a puzzled expression.

"Name? uhm… no… no… sorry. I don't remember…" she suddenly looked terrified "Anything. I have no memories!" she started panicking.

"Sh…" Aubrey smiled at her "Calm down okay? Don't worry about it. You have quite a lump in your head plus a bad cut, so you probably have temporal amnesia. It'll go away with time and rest, okay?" the soldier nodded slowly "So this is what we know about you. My friend Chloe here, and my boyfriend Jesse…" she moved to point at them and the soldier nodded "found you yesterday in Depalpur, Pakistan. Does that name rings any bells?"

"No…" Mitchell shook her head "I mean, geographically, I know more or less where Pakistan is, but that's it." She coughed a little and Aubrey helped her sit up against a bunch of pillows Chloe brought from the living.

"It's okay, it's just a cold… your throat it's a bit irritated." Aubrey said after taking a look at her throat, and the brunette nodded lying back "So… my friend Chloe brought her to her house, that's where we are now. This is in Kakrola, a small town part of Delhi, in India." The other woman nodded slowly.

"India sounds prettier." Mitchell whispered with a raspy voice and Aubrey and Chloe smiled. Jesse sat on the bed next to the wounded soldier "So… do you guys… like… live here? Not… America?"

"Oh no." Chloe smiled "Jesse and I are archeologists. Dusty places are like home for us." Jesse chuckled and nodded. The girl nodded a little.

"Are you in any pain?" Aubrey asked and the soldier nodded.

"Throat… head…" she whispered "And…" Her eyes became a bit glassy and she looked down.

"What is it honey?" Aubrey asked kindly. The soldier shrugged. It was hard to believe such a miserable woman was a strong soldier.

"I… might be… starving a tiny bit… and thirsty." Mitchell then looked up, scared "But I can hold on!" she exclaimed suddenly, and then coughed "I don't wanna be a weight or disturb anyone… just… forget it…"

"No, I said I would take care of you, you're not a weight. If you need anything, I wanna give it to you." Chloe said kindly "I'd bring you some water and warm up some soup I have, is that good?" Mitchell nodded.

Later, Chloe even helped her to eat, since Mitchell was still weak.

"I promise it's just one meal and I'll go and you'll never see me again." The soldier whispered after a while with puppy eyes. She had only thanked and complimented the food in the past ten minutes "Just one meal."

"God no." Chloe smiled kindly "You're staying here at least until you're completely good, and then you can do what you want because I don't want you to feel arrested or anything. But I'd really appreciate the company, so it would be really nice if you could stay… well, we'd look for your family in America, I assure you, and we'll find them and help you get back to them whenever you want."

"America?" soldier Mitchell looked confused.

"Oh, yeah, we forgot! You were wearing an US Army camouflage uniform." Chloe explained "It doesn't say your name but it says your surname is Mitchell."

"Oh." The woman nodded slowly "That makes sense I guess. So I'm American?" she took another spoon of soup.

"Indeed." Jesse affirmed. He was looking through his phone and then smiled "And according to the Internet, your uniform indicates you're Sergeant Mitchell of the US Army." Sergeant Mitchell nodded.

"I guess. I really don't remember. Last thing I remember is waking up in the middle of the streets during a storm."

"It rained five days ago in Pakistan." Aubrey explained "Around where you were, actually."

"Then, that was five days ago… I felt horrible and I tried to beg to some Pakistani who yelled at me and then slapped me. Next thing I know I'm here." Sergeant Mitchell explained.

"Well, let's rest that brain of yours for a while, uh? Just sleep and I'll be around for anything you need. If you need to go to the bathroom, you call me and I'll help you. And if I've fallen asleep or something and I didn't hear, you the bathroom is the first door at the right." Chloe indicated "This apartment only has four rooms, so you won't get lost. Feel free to go around, my house is your house." She smiled kindly and the brunette nodded with a tiny smile.

"Thank you so much guys. If I can ever do anything for you, just let me know." Sergeant Mitchell said. After some more chatting, the brunette patient felt asleep, and Chloe tucked her before moving to the kitchen with her friends to prepare some lunch.


	2. Chapter 2

_That was a good unexpected reaction! Thanks a lot guys, in celebration here's chapter two not even 24h after chapter 1! lucky people!_

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 **Chapter 2: Aftermath.**

" _American bitch!"_ _the yelling bounced inside Sergeant Mitchell's ears before she clenched her teeth strongly and her knees hit the ground as she hugged the wooden post she had her arms around with her wrists tied up together, and the twenty something lashing hit her back. The Sergeant grunted, not willing to give them the satisfaction of her yelling, and her eyes shut closed._

 _She only remembered there was an explosion. Then, the other soldiers had taken her prisoner, and beaten the crap out of her, before tying her there and now there was blood on her temple and forehead and she didn't know for how long she had been shirtless and receiving lashings there._

 _"Whore!" and a stronger lashing made her yell and her eyes fill with tears. Then another, another, and another…_

A sharp yell reverberated in the small apartment and Chloe ran to her bedroom. The Sergeant sat up covered en sweat and yelling with tears on her cheeks.

"Sweetie, it's okay!" Chloe sat on the verge of the bed and put a hand on the back of the Sergeant's head and another in the back of her neck, bringing her close and hugging her as the brunette cried against her chest. She would've rubbed her back if it wasn't so bad "Sh… it's okay Mitch, it's just a nightmare. You're okay, I won't let a thing hurt you, you're safe here. You're safe honey."

The redhead had been working all afternoon in the living room, while the Sergeant slept peacefully on her bed, or so she thought. Now it was at night already.

"It wasn't a nightmare. It was a memory." The brunette said once she was calmed down, pulling apart from Chloe's arms. Chloe kindly cleaned her tears with her thumbs and took her hands softly.

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked, confused.

"I think I'm remembering stuff." The Sergeant explained "I remember I was at war. I remember shootings and yelling, and then there was a strong explosion, I think someone next to me put a foot on a land-mine, I don't know, but it threw me away and knocked me out. When I woke up" she explained, focused on the gentle hands that held her own "somebody had just thrown a bucket of ice cold water to my face. I sat up and I had been deprived of my weapons and stuff, and I was surrounded by Pakistani soldiers, so I prepared to fight with my bare hands. And at first it wasn't as bad, you know? But then, they started winning. I lost consciousness again and when I woke up, I was tied hugging a wooden post and I was shirtless. I remember I panicked and tried to free myself knowing what was going to happen, but soon they were lashing me. I lost count after twenty something, and by then my back was already in flesh and blood. They were insulting me for being an American soldier. When I woke up next, it was in the streets. I remember I was in an out of consciousness all the time. I threw up, I was already dressed again so I walked through the streets… begged food, water… had no idea where I was… I was feeling weaker and weaker, and dizzier and thirstier, and I was already too hungry. Nobody helped me because of my uniform, they wouldn't help the enemy. I think I spend more than a week out there without any feeding, drinking from the rain when it fell, knowing rivers and water streams would be incredibly contaminated and get me so sick I'd die shortly after. Then, I was freezing and exhausted and feeling so sick, so I tried to protect myself from the rain and hug myself. Next, I was here." The brunette explained, and Chloe listened closely, and nodded at the end.

"Alright." Chloe nodded "Well, don't worry Sergeant, you're safe here. I told you, no one is going to hurt you again."

"Thank you." The other woman squeezed her hand "You truly are an angel, Chloe. I know I should be stronger and not such a messy chicken but…"

"Hey!" Chloe frowned "Don't insult my friend, will you? She's a brave, brave soldier." The brunette had a timid smile.

"Am I your friend?" Chloe grinned.

"Of course you are. Now, sweetie, are you hungry? Thirsty maybe?" Mitchell nodded "Good! There's water, some apple juice, orange juice…"

"Water's fine." Mitchell replied and Chloe nodded and smiled.

"Okay. I can make you a sandwich, or some toasts, or pancakes… there's also some meat and potatoes… wait, I'll cook you a decent dinner, I have to eat too now that I remember." Chloe chuckled and the soldier felt her smile was just contagious.

"Can I help you with anything?" the soldier asked. Chloe pressed her lips against her forehead.

"I'd love that, but you're still feverish and have quite a cold, you've been coughing while you slept, so why don't you lie here and rest a little so you feel better sooner and can help me out?"

"Okay…" The brunette nodded "Chloe?"

"Yes honey?"

"Can I rest on your sofa? I'd like to move a bit…"

"Oh, that's perfect, yeah, that'd be good for you." Chloe helped her out and with barely a bit of wincing, Beca was lying comfortably on the sofa over a bunch of cushions and wrapped in a warm blanket. Chloe went to the kitchen and Beca looked around.

She was in a small room, square shaped. It was a beige room, with wooden floor, and the walls were free from any frames or anything. In one wall there was a balcony, that was closed in that moment, and next to it a couple armchairs at both sides of a small table. There was a bookcase on the opposite extreme of the room, filled with books and books, some very big, and some photographs in small frames. There was another bookcase that looked very alike in front of her. She was on a comfortable old sofa over a carpet, the balcony at one side and the other bookcase at the other, the corridor's other end being the same room, in front of her and to the right, by the corner, although that room had no doors. In front of the Sergeant, before the bookcase, was a small coffee table with a closed old laptop and tons of folders.

The brunette winced getting up and still wrapped in the blanket she approached the bookcase in front of her. There was a photograph of a beautiful woman, with a smile as beautiful as Chloe's, short red hair, and warm brown eyes. Between her arms there was a little toddler with her eyes almost closed from how wide her smile or laugh was, but the woman saw the toddler had the same eyes Chloe had, and short red hair, and wore overalls. At another photograph, there was what seemed Chloe in her graduation and her proud father next to her, both smiling and her father wrapping an arm around her daughter and staring at her with adoration. Another photograph displayed a young teen, also ginger with dark blue eyes, dimples, and a sweet smile, next to what the brunette supposed where Chloe's parents. If in the graduation photograph her father had white hair and white beard, and looked older, now he looked younger, and his hair was blond, his eyes the same Chloe had. The couple looked very in love behind the teen, and Chloe, just a child, stood next to what seemed like her brother, hugging his arm. The brunette smiled looking at that. Chloe really loved her family.

The Sergeant wondered if they would be in America, if they would be proud, although they sure were, who wouldn't? worried, yes. Then she wondered if she had a family. If her family seemed as nice, kind and lovely as Chloe's, if she also had an older brother, or if she was the eldest, the middle, or an only child. She wondered if there were gays in her family, if her family liked her or not, and finally, feeling a bit saturated, she lied on the sofa again.

"Dinner's ready." Chloe sang walking to the living room with two plates of meat and potato purée and peas. She picket her stuff up from the coffee table, moved it to the other table, and put the food on the coffee table.

"Yummy, smells nice!" The Sergeant smiled sitting up and licking her lips. Chloe smiled handing her the cutlery and setting two glasses of water and some bread.

They finished eating soon, and sat together on the sofa, under the blanket.

"Chloe." The soldier asked.

"Yes."

"Is that your family?" The brunette pointed to the bookcase with her head and Chloe's eyes followed hers and nodded slowly. "They look really nice. Like a perfect little family." The brunette offered with a tiny smile, seeing Chloe's eyes had watered a little "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" Chloe had a tiny sad smile.

"No, it's okay." Chloe shook her head and smiled at the shorter girl "We were a tiny perfect family. We were the happiest."

"What happened, if I may ask?" The Sergeant asked with a concerned expression that moved Chloe.

"My brother, Michael, he was sixteen and I was nine, in 1998, my brother got in a car with some friends. He wasn't driving, but somehow when the car crashed against a building, he was the only one who died. His brain died, basically, and my father, a doctor, he knew what to do, so we let him go." She explained with glassy eyes. She chuckled sadly when the brunette rubbed her arm and squeezed her hand "That wasn't even the worst, you know? My father… as a doctor, he worked a lot. He tried to be home as much as possible for us, but he had work and now he was even using it to cope, and I was a kid, and my mother… she was dying inside. She had the warmest heart and was so sensible… like me actually. But I have more of my father's strength, fortunately. The thing is, my mother couldn't take it for long. I was fourteen years old when I walked into the bathroom and saw my mother dead in the bathtub, the water completely red."

"Oh God." Mitchell frowned and squeezed her hand "I'm really sorry Chloe." Chloe nodded and breathed deeply.

"It's better know. Then… I was a mess. It traumatized me so much I would faint with blood, and my marks dropped drastically, and I had to spend a month at home, my father couldn't even talk to me. I couldn't get into that bathroom, and I panicked seeing the bathtubs, so my father had them changed into showers. To this day, I've never had a bath or supported bathtubs. They bring bad memories that are still as real in my mind as if it happened yesterday. Fortunately, my father became my rock and pulled me out of that. I became a model student, and went to college, in Barden, Atlanta. I'm originally from Denver, Colorado." Chloe explained and the soldier chuckled.

"That's great. It's ironic, do you know Colorado in Spanish means being reddish? And you're a redhead." The girl said and Chloe laughed.

"That's awesome! I studied some Spanish, but never realized of that. Hey, you do remember some stuff!"

"I have no idea where that came from." Mitchell chuckled and shrugged "So what happened next?"

"Next…" Chloe nodded "I majored in archeology, top of my class. I wanted to travel the world. That was… five years ago. I was doing small works that involved me travelling for a couple months from now and then. My father was the proudest… then I came here. I discovered there were many interesting things here, so when I was twenty four, I moved in here. Now I'll be twenty seven in March, 9th, in case you want to write me a letter." Chloe joked and the brunette chuckled and nodded.

"What happened to your father?" the brunette asked.

"He's working in Denver." Chloe nodded "He's fine, as much as I know. I barely know from him, he writes me really often but mail takes several days, if not weeks, to arrive, phone calls are really expensive so we barely do that, and also with more than twelve hours of difference, it's practically impossible. If I'm having lunch, he's sleeping, if I'm having dinner, he's at work… we manage sometimes, but only sometimes. I don't have internet here, so we don't do video conferences. I tried, but this is the middle of nowhere basically, you know? I haven't known from my father in like three weeks."

"I'm sorry." The brunette squeezed her hand again "Why don't you fly there?"

"Work." Chloe smiled "Also, money. The ticket costs more than a thousand and a hundred dollars."

"Ouch." The brunette frowned and Chloe nodded.

"My job is a passion, it doesn't pay well. Even less here. I've been thinking about going back to Colorado… but I know I don't have a professional future there as a real archeologist, I would have to become a teacher or something. And I like travelling and being in the front lines of interesting stuff, even if I miss my father like crazy."

"That's normal." The soldier nodded "Are Jesse and Doctor Aubrey friends you made here?"

"No." Chloe smiled kindly "I met them in Barden. We studied together, and Jesse and Aubrey were dating. Aubrey and I were the captains of an a cappella group named 'The Barden Bellas'." The soldier curved her lips into a tiny smile "We loved that, but life is crazy, you know? The three of us ended up wanting to come here. They live in the city, in New Delhi. It's too expensive for me. At first we lived together, but they were moving forward, and I decided to leave. They're a couple, you know? And I wanted to bring people home without… well… it became a bit awkward, you could say. But then again I've never lived alone, so I'm usually quite lonely with my runes and ruins."

"I'm still shocked with the fact that you're one of those a cappella girls." The soldier laughed "Oh, I bet you were awesome!"

"We were! We won many prizes."

"Awesome! Sing me something."

"Alright." Chloe smiled "But let's go to bed, just in case you end up falling asleep here."

They moved to the bed and got comfortable next to each other. The soldier winced in pain from time to time, but she found a good position and refused to move. Chloe started singing.

" _Yesterday's gone and tomorrow's come way too fast, you were my first love California, my last. Now I'm wide awake, thinking of you with every breath I take and I'm up before you in Pacific Standard time, trying to find the words to write a perfect rhyme. And it's such a crazy hour but I just can't get you off my mind. Just can't get you off my mind. Maybe one more dream can end, another trip down memory lane, it's too late to call. But is it too late to change my ways_ " then, she heard the breathing of the soldier slow down, and when she looked down, she was asleep. Chloe smiled and stroke her face as she finalized the song, and then kissed her on the forehead goodnight and went to the living room to keep working.

 _"Dad!" a younger self ran crying towards her father, a tall brunet man who entered the house with a suitcase, looking tired._

 _"What's up now, Rebeca darling?" the man asked putting an arm around her daughter._

The soldier woke up suddenly, and winced in pain, but clenched her teeth. The sun illuminated her room and she saw in Chloe's cell, that was on the bedside table, that it wasn't even seven in the morning yet, but Chloe wasn't there.

"Chloe?" she called, but received no answer. She made an effort and brought a hand to her ribs carefully as she limped towards the living room wrapped in the blanket she had gotten used to be wrapped into. She smiled seeing Chloe was asleep on the sofa, the coffee table covered in papers again, and she covered the redhead with the blanket and sat on the verge of the sofa, to then proceed softly rubbing Chloe's arms "Chloe, Chloe, wake up for a second honey. Just a moment."

"What?" Chloe opened her eyes a little, confused "Oh, hello girl, is it the morning already?"

"Yes, but not even seven yet, so you can sleep. I just wanted to tell you, I have a name!"

"What?" Chloe sat up rubbing her eyes, and yawned.

"I dreamed with it, and I feel it's a memory. I saw my father, and he called me Rebeca. I'm Sergeant Rebeca Mitchell." She smiled widely and Chloe smiled widely too, and hugged her softly trying not to hurt her.

"Oh Rebeca, that's so pretty! It fits you." Chloe said.

"Yes, but I think I don't really… like I'd prefer a nickname. Rebeca sounds long and a bit too adult or too childish." Rebeca said and Chloe laughed.

"God, you're so difficult. Then, how does Beca sound like? I can even call you Becs." Rebeca grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds awesome! Thanks Chloe, go back to sleep hon. Hey, but come to bed, you'll break your neck!" Beca took Chloe's hand and Chloe laughed standing up and helping Beca walk to the bedroom again.

 _"I'm hungry." Beca felt herself speak before she heard herself, and took a few seconds to understand she was the one talking, saying that pitiful whisper._

 _Her feet dragged her tiredly through some big city, the cold she felt was real -she was freezing- and her mouth had formed a bit of white smoke in the air. She was exhausted, her stomach was making sounds, and she felt she could let her trembling and skeletal body faint any time now._

 _She entered an alley filled with other people -alive and dead, as it would be discovered later- that snuggled in the corners trying to get some warmth. It was a pathetic view, but she was, unfortunately, too used to that._

 _"Any luck today, kiddo?" an old lady asked her as she let her ass fall against the ground. Beca shook her head and coughed._

 _"Apparently" she said hoarsely "sixteen year olds don't get as much pity as six year olds."_

Beca's eyes popped open and she breathed deeply. Her head hurt and her ribs hurt, her back was itchy, but her wrists and ankle seemed fine. The pain of the beating was starting to be felt around her body. Beca forgot how to even think when she heard breathing next to hers, and then smiled calming down when she saw Chloe hugging her arm, asleep, with her nose nudged against the crook of Beca's neck.

"Sleepy head…" Beca sang bringing her right hand to Chloe's face, barely rubbing her cheek with her knuckles. Chloe was truly beautiful. Her eyes had bags under them, and she looked tired, but she still looked gorgeous. Her lips were just the perfect form and size, and Beca couldn't help but moving her thumb through them.

"Mm…" Chloe whispered nudging more against her neck and Beca's smile grew, placing her palm against Chloe's milky cheek and leaning to place a kiss against her forehead. Her eyes traveled around the room and Beca realized Chloe had a photograph of her whole family and herself on the bedside table. A blonde man holding a ginger baby with the biggest grin, and a redhead woman smiling at the toddler in her arms waving to the camera as he imitated her. Next to that photograph, there was another of a man in his fifties with white hair, beard and glasses, sitting on an armchair, reading.

Beca felt so much appreciation towards the redhead. Not a lot of people, and she felt like she knew that so much better than she could remember, would offer her house to a homeless person dying on the streets. Chloe had picked her up, feed her, lend Beca her own bed, slept on the sofa so she could have all of the bed for herself, lend her clothes, even brushed her hair and cleaned her up. Beca smelled herself like Chloe's skin -presumably for the soap- and felt clean and neat thanks to her. She may not remember many things, but she had this strong, powerful feeling, that she knew almost nobody would've done what Chloe had. And Beca couldn't help but felt extremely grateful, loved, appreciated… and to feel so much gratitude and appreciation for Chloe, for whom she already knew she would do anything. She owed her that.

"She tends to get pretty touchy, uh?" Aubrey suddenly appeared by the doorframe, a smirk on her face as she contemplated Chloe.

"It's okay." Beca said quickly "I guess it must be really lonely here all day. Is very far away this house from where you guys live?"

"Three quarters of hours away by driving." Aubrey replied "Fortunately Jesse and she work together most of the time, and I work a lot too. But when I can, Jesse and I come by or I join them somewhere. Chloe also comes to New Delhi whenever she can." Beca nodded slowly.

"You must be like sisters." Beca commented "Chloe told me you were together in the Barden Bellas? In college?" Aubrey smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, co-captains for the last two years even." Aubrey explained "Yes, those were great times. We also shared bedroom for those four years… It was great, actually. We became sisters and we never separated. She has come many times to where I lived in Boise, Idaho. And I've gone to Denver many times too. Our families know and adore each other."

"Then, hasn't your family tried to reach her father?" Beca asked.

"They've tried, that's what has her the most desperate, that not even them found him. They went to her house, nobody was there. They called, nobody picked up. They sent letters and emails, nothing. Roger seems to have disappeared from Earth. My parents have tried everything, but the government won't give them any more information because they aren't related." Beca nodded slowly "Chloe and Jesse investigate a lot of things locals and many other governments don't want to be investigated, so Chloe's afraid what she's been doing got her dad to be kidnapped. I've tried to convince her maybe he went on a trip and his letters never made it here."

"I'll find him." Beca stated, and Aubrey raised her eyebrows "Roger, you say? I'll go to Colorado, and I'll find him. I don't know how or when, but I'll be there as soon as I can, and I'll do anything to find him."

"Roger Beale." Aubrey informed her, and Beca nodded. Aubrey smiled "You're one of a kind, Beca." Beca chuckled.

"When did Chloe tell you my name?" Beca asked and Aubrey laughed.

"She sent us a text before falling asleep, I guess. Jesse is making lunch, so maybe we should wake her up." Beca nodded and leaned over Chloe tapping her cheek a little.

"Chlo, wake up. Come on ginger, I'm hungry." Beca smirked as Chloe opened her eyes with a frown, and then rubbed her own eyes and yawned.

"Five minutes." Chloe pleaded and Beca laughed.

"Come on, Jesse and Aubrey are here and Jesse made lunch. Let's go." Beca insisted. Chloe looked around confused and saw Aubrey sitting on the feet of the bed, smiling at her. Aubrey reached her hands towards Chloe.

"Let's go little flame." Aubrey smirked and Chloe sighed tiredly taking her hands and pulling herself up. Beca followed them limping a little, observing how caring Aubrey was putting an arm around Chloe's waist and kissing her temple. Beca soon learned Chloe when recently waked up was a lot like a toddler. She got indecisive, yawner, and slightly moody.

"Beale, you're falling asleep over the musaka I made." Jesse giggled while they ate sitting around the coffee table.

"Shut up, I'm jetlagged after our trip to Pakshtan." Chloe mumbled, and Beca laughed.

"Pakshtan uh?" Beca elbowed her playfully and Chloe chuckled looking at her.

"Oh come on, I work all the time can I be tired?" Chloe smiled shaking her head.

"Did you sleep good at least?" Aubrey asked rubbing her back and Chloe nodded.

"The good part about Beca having a fever is that I get a warm teddy bear." Chloe joked and Beca smiled.

"I'm glad I'm useful." Beca said.

"Hey Becs, I just remembered! Yesterday while you were sleeping, I was cleaning your clothes and you had stuff in your pockets. I haven't look through it, by the way." Chloe got up and opened one drawer of one of the bookcases, taking a small plastic bag and giving it to Beca "I shoved everything in, so it wouldn't get lost around the drawer."

Beca thanked her and started rummaging through her things.

* * *

Mia chapter 1 . 10h ago

Loved the first chapter! ! Update soon **Thanks a lot Mia!**

katie chapter 1 . 12h ago

OMG PLEASE UPDATE SOON! **Thanks Katie!**

Guest chapter 1 . 15h ago

This is amazing can't wait for more. You dun good **Thank you!**

Guest chapter 1 . 16h ago

interesting! I don't think this has been done before and it looks pretty good so far, please continue! (: **I hope so, I love doing new stuff. Thank you!**


	3. Chapter 3

_Okay, I'm really really sorry for the lack of updates these days, in compensation, here's updates today in ALL my bechloe fanfics. Now, what happened is that last week on Tuesday I finished my exams, that_ _ **kept me busy for the whole January**_ _and so last week I was writing and relaxing on my own. Then on Monday this week I got really sick with a cold that ended up being a horrible thing to have at least Monday, because it didn't seem like a normal cold, I was having chills then being too warm, headaches, stomachaches, sneezes, throat pain, coughs, over sensitivity to light, watery eyes all the time… well, I was a mess and went to Theatre at night to rehearse something I'm doing in May-June and the rehearse ended at night and I came back dead, but couldn't miss it because exams already made me miss two rehearsals so… and then Tuesday I spent the whole day in bed and didn't went to class, which was good because thanks to that yesterday I was a lot better and today I'm really recovering, so all good. You gotta know that I care too much for Emotionless, Lost and Found, Unstoppable and The Last Battle to abandon them and I'm ALWAYS writing new chapters (well, all of the stories are already completely written except for Lost and Found, and even that one has like ten chapters written or more) I only need time and energy to update because I like to update them all at once in order not to forget any behind. So if you see I'm not updating either you missed something I said before some chapter explaining my absence, either I'm sick, dead, or busy as hell._

 _Again, thanks for always being such great readers and reviewers. I love you all like crazy. I will answer all reviews once I'm completely OK because it's four stories with reviews and I want to take a good time to read them and answer them. Please leave reviews. Love you!_

 _About this chapter, you'll get some action as some new memories start coming!_

 **Chapter 3: Memories.**

Beca pushed her empty plate aside with her healthy hand and let the contents of the bag on the table. In front of her there were some folded papers, a wallet, a pocketknife, an envelope and a card. Beca decided to go from the stuff that seemed less interesting to the one that seemed more interesting, so she first took the papers. One was receipt for a place she had taken a beer in back in December 12th somewhere that seemed Pakistan, judging by the name of the place and the fact that the receipt was in Urdu.

"So I drink." Beca nodded after having whispered what she was reading. Another paper was actually was seemed like a photograph cut off a magazine. It was of a beach and Beca had written with a pen on it "Holidays…" Beca read "So I dreamed with going on holidays to the beach?"

"Easy to content." Jesse commented.

"And this is a bus ticket… December 18th… I hadn't been kidnapped yet, I guess." Beca nodded for herself and then took the pocketknife, opened it an inspected it "Wow, this is a cool toy! Although it looks a bit old and blunt… the paint has come off at some parts…" Beca frowned a little "Why didn't I buy a good pocketknife before being deployed? It could've been useful…"

"What does the card says?" Chloe asked. Beca took it and gasped.

"It's an US Army ID card! Wish I found it earlier!" Beca looked at a photograph of herself, serious expression, a neat, dark elegant uniform on, shorter hair pulled back, and the US flag behind, and read out loud "Rebeca J. Mitchell. Pay grade E-5. SGT… Sergeant…" Beca nodded for herself "Birth, August 9th 1989, Seattle, Washington. I'm from Seattle!"

"And you're our age!" Chloe smiled "Twenty six, you sure looked young."

"Let's pretend we're surprised the palest girl ever is from Seattle." Jesse joked.

Beca smiled and continued reading.

"Armed Forces of the United States. Active duty. Issue date January 2014, expiration date January 2019."

"So you haven't been in the military for long, uh?" Chloe asked.

"No, I have memories of having been for a long time… and I'm a Sergeant, there's no way I can become a Sergeant in a matter of two years." Beca said, confused.

"That's true. This is just an ID card, lasts five years, so probably this is… the second time you had it done." Aubrey said "That means you were… twenty, when you first got in the Army? Wow, that's young girl." Beca looked surprised too.

"I've been for six years, almost seven? Wow." Beca shrugged "I guess somebody convinced me it would be cool or something. I should've been in college."

"So you never majored." Chloe commented, and Beca shake her head "Bad girl Becs…" Chloe smiled rubbing her back.

Beca smiled and took the wallet.

"Five dollars… yeah, I must be rich. Oh, my normal ID. Oh, it's from Nevada! So I live in Nevada, uh… Rebeca Jude Mitchell, oh God I'm gonna kill my parents…" her friends laughed.

"I like it! Like the song 'Hey Jude", hey, maybe your parents love The Beatles." Chloe said. Beca chuckled shaking her head.

"Date of birth August 9th 1989… Address Highland Street 6, 2 floor, door B. Carson City. And my signature is worth an analysis… Alright…" Beca shrugged, feeling her head pounding a little. Too much information at once. Her driving license told her she could drive normal cars, and she also found out she was a donor "Donor? Okay, this card has six months, so it's probably not my first. Why would I live in Nevada and be such a good samaritan? Did I get a boyfriend and had kid? Oh my God, what if I have kids?"

"Relax Mitchell…" Aubrey calmed her down "Look in your wallet, most moms have photos of their kids or loved ones."

Beca looked and sighed in relief.

"Or I have no family or I'm not one of those people." Beca said finding no photographs. She then took the envelope, her heart beating painfully in her chest as she read who sent the letter "Ruth J. Fanning. Davenport Street, 78. San Francisco, California."

"Read out loud or want some privacy?" Chloe asked. Beca shrugged. At this time, who cares? They deserved to know who she was, Chloe opened her house to her.

"October 29th, 2015. My dearest child… Oh my god, Ruth's my mother!" Beca cleared her throat, breathed deeply and kept reading. Chloe smiled at her "I haven't heard from you since you were almost eighteen…" Beca frowned, but kept reading "…so it would make me really happy if you could answer me. I found out your new address thanks to some good friends, I know in my last letter I promised I would give you time to contact me, but that was ten months ago and still no answer, and I was starting to get really worried, so I went to visit you in Carson City. However, you weren't home, but your neighbor told me you were in Pakistan, deployed. I contacted the Army and they told me where I could write. Rebeca, I understand if you're still angry at me and the man who put the sperm, but I've changed, just remember that. Remember I'm not the same woman you left seven years ago, I rehabilitated, I'm better now, and if you want, I'd really love to see you when you come back. If you come back before Christmas or New Year's Eve, you can spend the festivities with me. Please, at least let me know you're okay. Love, mom."

Beca closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"Becs…" Chloe had squeezed her good hand, and she opened her eyes "Don't overload yourself, okay? Take it easy, one by one." Beca nodded "So we know your name is Rebeca Jude Mitchell. We know you were born in Seattle, almost twenty seven years ago, that you're the daughter of Ruth and a man who doesn't seem really close, maybe they never got married or they got divorced later. We know at some point before you turned eighteen you left your mother. Maybe you guys already lived in San Francisco, maybe she moved afterwards. We don't know why you left your mother, but she sure did something wrong to be in rehab, maybe drugs, alcohol or something, but she wasn't a good mother apparently. So you left. We don't know what you did or where you were, from around the next two years, but then you joined the Army." Beca nodded "Whether you already lived in Carson City or you moved in later, remains unknown. It doesn't seem like you have a partner or children, and I wouldn't say you ever went to college, but maybe you went and abandoned it at some point. Now, we know you are a Sergeant and you can drive, and we know you were fine until December 18th at least. We found you January 4th, so that's seventeen days. Good until that?" Beca nodded focused on her eyes and not in the throbbing pain in her head "We know around five days earlier, around New Year's Eve or maybe a bit earlier, you were on the streets during a storm, and you had already been attacked. You said you felt like you were around the streets more than a week, so let's say you were kidnapped somewhere between the 18th and the 28th or so, more or less… and we don't know how many days you were kidnapped either, but we know with the explosion you probably hurt your head, and maybe hurt something else, and then we know the back injury and most of your bruises and cuts are from the kidnapping. Well, we know some stuff don't we?"

"I guess." Beca shrugged "But what for Chloe? I have more questions than answers! Who's my father? How were my parents like for me to leave? Were they divorced, did I live with my mother? Where did I go? Why would I join the Army? How and why did I get to Nevada?"

"Easy tiger, you don't want to overwhelm yourself." Aubrey said.

"Do you think you maybe lived on the streets until you went to the Army?" Jesse inquired "It would make sense you joined then. If you didn't have a major, and you lived on the streets, you probably were poor and couldn't find a job. In the Army they're desperate, so they probably didn't ask a lot, and they paid you and you got to travel the world, no strings attached either, and probably with the money you could afford a house in Carton City. Far away from the family, a place to start over."

"Then why didn't I look for a better job once I had enough money to afford a house?" Beca inquired.

"Beca, overwhelming yourself with questions is not the solution." Aubrey said firmly "You need rest, not this. The answers will come at the right time, and with a little bit of luck, maybe your mother will try to find you. Now, I brought some stuff from the hospital, painkillers and something to disinfect your wounds, if you let me, okay?"

Almost an hour later, Beca sat on the verge of Chloe's bed with her elbows on her knees and her forehead between her hands, as she sat shirtless, wearing only some pajama pants that belonged to Chloe, while Aubrey sat behind her trying to fix her back a little. Beca realized she had a good resistance to pain, as she was just clenching her teeth and making some noise from time to time. Aubrey had to cut more dead skin, put some stitches more, disinfect her whole back, and she couldn't bandage anything because her entire back, plus the back of her upper arms, and the back of her neck, were filled with big cuts.

"I think there are more than a hundred cuts here Becs." Aubrey commented giving her the shirt again. She had previously disinfected all of Beca's cuts and wounds, made sure the lump in her head was smaller, and that her ribs looked a bit better, and checked her wrist and ankle. They had left what they knew would be the worst for the end. Chloe helped Beca button the shirt up, and Jesse came with a glass of water and some painkillers for Beca, who took them gratefully.

"I've had dreams. Realistic dreams. Are they memories?" Beca said suddenly, contemplating her knees.

"Probably." Aubrey replied.

"They seemed like it." Beca said "That's how I figured my name out. I was a kid, I was crying. I felt horrible inside, and I remember seeing my father enter the house felt a relief and I ran to hug him. Tall man, brown hair, gray eyes, goatee… He looked tired of me. He barely looked at me and he just asked 'What's up _now_ , Rebeca darling?' he seemed uncomfortable. He put an arm around me like a robot, without any… warmth or comfort."

"It's okay Beca. Maybe he just had a rough day." Chloe consoled her, squeezing her knee with a warm smile. Beca stared at her.

"But Chloe… I ran out of home. I remember being homeless."

"What?" Aubrey sat next to them and Jesse frowned standing close.

"I remember… being in a cold place. I was freezing and really hungry. I felt weak and tired, I was barely dragging my feet, during the night, towards a dark alley with people being mere lumps here and there, trying to protect themselves from the cold. I sat next to an old lady who asked me if I had any luck, and I told her eighteen years old didn't get as much pity as six year old [A/N: In the last chapter I wrote sixteen by mistake] so… I was eighteen and homeless. And Jesse's probably right. I was probably starving and sick of the situation and I was desperate enough to join the Army and get a bed, a meal and money. I remember the loneliness. The sadness. I think it was my birthday even… and I smelled, and my clothes were dirty and had some holes. And I was completely alone."

"Hey…" Chloe put a hand under her chin pulling it up to look at her in the eyes and with her thumb stroke her cheek. Beca looked at her and received a warm smile in return "Past is past. Beca, I strongly recommend you to at least go and talk with your mother so you can know your life, but if you don't want to or if you get sick of America and want to come back here, this house is open for you for as long as you want to. And we are your friends, we're here for you whenever you want to. You're not alone anymore. You can go back, put things in order and if you want, you can come back and stay with us. Start over here. Or you can never come back, let them believe you died and bury an empty coffin, and stay here. Either way, we'll have your back. We'll be the net to keep you off the ground." Beca smiled.

"Thanks Chloe. It really means a lot… and the fact that you opened my house to me and you all took such good care of me… I'll never forget it guys, seriously. I… I'm so thankful. And I know I've been homeless before, and days in Pakistan dying on the streets, and nobody ever helped me like this. So thank you and… if I ever can do anything…" Beca shrugged looking at Jesse and Aubrey and they nodded with little smiles.

"Don't worry Becs." Jesse assured. Beca looked back at Chloe.

"I promise I will find your father. Dead or alive, I will find him." Beca said suddenly, solemnly, catching Chloe off guard. Chloe raised her eyebrows in surprise and then smiled a little and nodded.

"Thanks." Chloe said "But how do you plan to do that? My family hadn't been able to. Our neighbors… nobody. He's probably been kidnapped Beca."

"I'll go to Denver the moment I'm healthy enough to stand the long trip. I'll go to the Us Army base in Pakistan, and they'll be thrilled to see I'm alive, Aubrey can sign me some paper saying I can't work as a soldier anymore or something like it and then they'll send me home. If I have a house, I can find the papers to go to the bank an empty my account. Then I'll go to Denver, find your father whatever it takes, and once I do, I'll fly here with money enough for you to come back with me. And then, I can start over." Beca explained. Chloe's smile widened and she hugged her tightly, keeping a hand on the back of her head and another on her thigh to avoid hurting her. Beca hugged her back just as tightly, and closed her eyes filling her nose with Chloe's scent.

"Maybe I was the lucky one the day I found you." Chloe whispered against her ear.

That night, Beca barely slept, while Chloe, next to her, seemed to have any problem to sleep tight and deep. Beca's fever went higher, and she had to go to throw up for a moment, which woke Chloe up and from that on, they spend the rest of the night sleeping and waking up, Chloe taking care of Beca. In the morning, Aubrey came and told them it seemed to be Beca's cold, since she had been coughing all night too, but that any wound seemed infected and she didn't seem to be having any other illness. So Beca rested the whole day long.

Beca woke up the next morning to Chloe singing softly in a bare whisper while stroking her hair and tucking her better in the bed.

" _You never know when you're gonna meet someone and your whole wide world in a moment comes undone. You're just walking around and suddenly, everything that you thought that you knew about love is gone. You find out it's all been wrong and all my scars don't seem to matter anymore, cause they led me here to you. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe that this could be the start of something good. Everyone knows life has its ups and downs, one day you're on top of the world and one day you're the clown, well I've been both enough to know, that you don't wanna get in the way when it's working out. The way that it is right now, you see my heart I wear it on my sleeve, cause I just can't hide it anymore. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe that this could be the start, cause I don't know where it's going, there's a part of me that loves not knowing, just don't let it end before we begin. You never know when you're gonna meet someone. And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe, oh I'm starting to believe that this could be the start of something good_."

Beca opened her eyes and saw Chloe sitting on the bed next to her, her back against a bunch of pillows by the head of the bed, a hand playing with Beca's hair absentmindedly and her eyes looking at the ceiling. Beca couldn't help the way her lips curved a little smiling at the sight.

"You're voice is beautiful." Beca whispered hoarsely, figuring out her voice sounded like crap because she had been coughing all day yesterday.

Chloe seemed surprise and looked down, thinking maybe she heard voices and Beca was still sleeping, but then smiled when she saw Beca looking at her and the hand that had momentarily stopped stroking the brown locks of hair moved again.

"Thanks!" Chloe said happily "How are you feeling?" Beca sat up a little, wincing when her ribs hurt a little, and supported her back against the pillows, contemplating the bedroom. She was soaked in sweat, and the sunlight came from the window at her right, along with some noise from the fruit shop that she had heard was under the house, and she had seen sometimes through the window that they had stands outside the shop and used to be yelling what they sold in Hindi.

"I'm… fine, mostly." Beca looked at Chloe. Her long red hair fell somehow entangled, but still gorgeous, her light blue eyes sparkled even more with the sunlight, her long, light eyelashes, extending and curving perfectly despite the lack of makeup in Chloe's face, some bags appeared under her eyes, and her spongy lips were parted slightly forming a smile, before she nodded. "My throat feels better for sure. And my back. I guess I just need a few more days to get back on my feet."

"And then you'll go to America? Like you said?" Chloe asked, but Beca didn't see it as like Chloe was anxious for her to find her dad, but more like if Chloe didn't want her to leave, like if she was sad to be getting her loneliness back.

"Yes, I have to. I have things to do there." Beca nodded "I wanna use the trip not only to find out what happened to your father but, when that's done, I also want to see what happened to my parents. I want to know who they are, and if I should follow my gut and stay the hell away from them. But at least they'll know I'm alive." Beca added "And I want to see that house I apparently own in Carson City, and think what I want to do with my life. I mean, I know I for sure don't want to be a soldier anymore, but I can only imagine I don't have much money or anything, and I never went to college and even if I'd probably should go and get a major, I doubt I can pay for it. So I don't know, maybe the Army will help me somehow. Maybe they have jobs in America or here that are like office stuff and I'm not risking my life, and aren't too boring. I don't know, I don't even know how my dream job would be like."

Chloe nodded thoughtful.

"That seems like a good plan. And you know, if you need any help… we're here. If you can't pay that apartment, come. If you don't have what to eat, I'll have a warm plate ready for you. And if you don't have the money to come even, I'll sell all my stuff if I have to and send you the money." Chloe commented. Beca's eyes widened in surprise.

"You would really sell all your things so I could come and be your own little parasitic for God knows how long?"

"You're not a parasitic." Chloe smiled a little "You're my friend Beca. And for my friends I'd do anything, even things that I wouldn't know for myself."

Beca was utterly surprised and speechless for this, and almost felt a bit emotional. Lacking words, she moved and kissed her check. Chloe grinned blushing.

"You're the most amazing friend I remember having, Chloe. Truly." Beca said, and Chloe chuckled before looking at her suddenly very serious, with glassy eyes and a slight frown.

"You won't forget me, won't you?" Chloe asked nervously playing with her fingers, and then looked down "I mean" she started rambling "if you go to America and everything is awesome, amazing, excellent and perfect, and you decide to stay forever, you will stay remember me, us? Right? And… and maybe you'll write from time to time? Not like, every week but…"

"Chloe." Beca cut her with a little smirk and placed a hand on her cheek "Look at me sweetie." Chloe moved her face looking at her with glassy eyes and pressing her cheek against Beca's hand "I will never forget you, or Jesse, or Aubrey, and all you've done for me. I won't forget this house, and you're amazing cooking skills, and the yelling of the store downstairs, or how the sun seems to shine different here, like if it was a dream. Look at me, after all I've apparently been through and I'm still managing to remember all kinds of crazy bad stuff, I know I would always manage to bring you back to my memory. But above it all… you really think I would just leave and never come back? Chloe… when I leave, I'll leave with all my thoughts in coming back. I'll leave thinking what presents I'm gonna bring back, I'll leave thinking how am I gonna sleep alone or where, and I'll leave thinking how any food it's going to be good enough from then on. I promise I'll come back Chloe. And what happens afterwards, I have no idea, but I'll effort in finding a way to get money steadily only so I can come here at least in the summer, if I have to stay in America, so even if I end up with the crappiest job I will still get to come back home in the summer. Don't you see it Chloe? I have barely memories before, and all I've remembered so far has only shown me that I never knew a home. But this place? This tiny, humble apartment? This seems like home. And I'm not interested in forgetting the best home I can remember having, if not the only one." Beca kissed her cheek again and whispered against her ear "And I will write. Everyday."

Chloe grinned and hugged her as tightly as she could without hurting her. Beca happily returned her hug, and then she heard Chloe start crying, and she frowned keeping Chloe close to her. She waited until Chloe calmed down while whispering nothingness by her ear, and then she pulled apart just a little.

"What is going on Chloe? You're too emotional to be all of this just for me, as flattering as it could be. Come on, you can't talk to me."

"It's just…" Chloe breathed deeply brushing her eyes with her hand and shook her head "One night I felt really, really bad, really sick. Like I was fine and then I wake up in the middle of the night, with my stomach hurting so bad. Aubrey saw me the next morning and even took blood samples, but she said everything was fine, and I didn't even feel bad anymore. But it was that one night. And it happened too when my brother died. It happened when my mother died, that's why I went to look for her and found her in the bathroom. I think it happens… when something bad happens to someone very close to me. I've heard of that, people that can feel when someone they're really, really attached to is not okay. And so… when this time happened… and not having heard from my dad in such a long time…" she sniffled and rubbed her watery eyes again "I think something terrible happened to him Beca. I'm pretty sure. And the suspense is killing me inside, you know? Not knowing what to do, how to help him, or if I'm the cause of his pain. But I felt like I was dying. And I think that that night, somewhere far away from here, a part of me died. Do you know what I mean?"

Beca's eyes fixed on Chloe's as realization came to her mind. As far as she could remember, she had never been attached to anybody, she had never lost anybody, she had never felt that connection with anybody. And then, there was Chloe, who knew that painful world she at least couldn't remember anything about. She didn't even remember how America looks like.

"If…" Beca sighed "If your father is… dead…" Chloe looked down and Beca put a hand on her chin so she looked at her "If your father is dead, Chloe, it's in no way your fault. Not even if he was killed. Because murderers are people responsible of their own decisions and if they say you made them do it, it's a lie, they just want to justify themselves and a horrid act. An act that has no justification, Chlo. So even in that case, it wouldn't be in no way your fault, you're not a murdered, you're just doing your job, and a hella good one. If your father died for any other reason… is not your fault either, Chlo. The bird is supposed to leave the nest one day, that's all you've done, that's all your father would've wanted you to do, because that means you're having your own success and that's all any parent should want for their kids, to be happy an successful, even if that pulls them seven thousand six hundred something miles away from them. Yes, you can't be there all you'd wish but… death happens to all of us, and you can't help it, and if he died on his own and didn't even have time for anybody in your family to know, then it was so quick he barely even felt it probably. But I doubt he's dead. You know why?"

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Because I refuse to believe it." Beca smirked and Chloe smiled a bit.

"Beca… there are exactly seven thousand six hundred forty two miles from here to Carson City. How did you know?" Chloe asked. Beca shrugged.

"I guess I studied it before I lost my memory?" Beca wondered "I don't know. Sometimes I remember random stuff. Like for example, did you know that kangaroos have the males two penises and the females two vaginas?" she raised her eyebrows with a smirk. Chloe stared at her for a second like trying to figure out if she was joking, and then started laughing loudly, which made Beca laugh too. That's all she wanted, to bring a smile to that face.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks for the reviews, I hope you all keep enjoying the story! From here on the things get pretty interesting ;)_

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Unchained melody.**

That day they spent it quietly at home. Chloe rarely spend so much time at home, usually out at excavations, explorations, and other stuff. They were sitting on the sofa together that afternoon, Beca sleepily supporting her cheek on Chloe's shoulder, while the redhead was observing some photographs of some columns and taking notes about them. Beca was almost asleep when the doorbell rang and Beca moved her head up, glaring at the door with a tired frown. Chloe went towards the door.

"Who is it?" Chloe asked in Hindi.

"Jamie!" a voice was heard. Chloe nodded and opened the door. She kindly hugged a man that entered the house, both smiling and being all friendly with each other.

"Jamie, this is my friend Beca, she just came visiting." Chloe said from behind Jamie, a tall brown haired man with stubble and green eyes, while he stared at Beca. Chloe mouthed to Beca to keep lying, which she gladly did because she had a bad feeling about that guy "Beca, this is my friend Jamie, he's an archeologist too, I wanted his advice with something that isn't my area of expertise."

"Nice to meet you." Jamie said moving a hand towards Beca with a polite smile. Beca squeezed his hand.

"The same. My apologies for not standing up, I actually have a cold and you know, barefoot, I don't want to touch the cold floor." Beca explained, not wanting to reveal she had a bad ankle after having been told she had to lie to the guy. Chloe seemed relieved and smiled at her.

"It's okay, understandable. So what brings a non archeologist American here?"

"As Chloe said, I came to visit her. I actually travel a lot, just for pleasure, and I missed my buddy." Beca winked at Chloe.

Before Jamie could keep talking, Chloe intervened.

"So, Jamie, it'll be just a quick thing." Chloe took some papers and put them on the small table. Beca stayed in the sofa observing from afar, and saw Jamie walk towards Chloe staring intently at her ass, which made Beca's blood boil, but she bite her tongue. Jamie stood beside Chloe with a hand on her back, almost on her ass, and Chloe shifted standing straighter, uncomfortable. They were murmuring for a bit and then Chloe turned around "Very good, thank you. You can go now."

"Oh, you're kicking me out?" Jamie chuckled.

"Jamie, a good friend just spent the night in a plane to see me, we'd love to have some women time doing women stuff, and she doesn't even know you to be comfortable around you." Chloe said without giving it a lot of importance.

"Alright…" Jamie shrugged looking at her ass again.

"Jamie, stop it." Chloe's voice suddenly was all but kind, which was new to Beca "It's not of gentleman to stare like that at ladies."

"I'm sorry Chlo, but you know I can't help it, you're so hot…" Jamie smiled standing very close to Chloe eating her breasts with her eyes.

"Jamie…" Chloe said in a threatening tone "Go. And don't call me that."

"But you liked it the last time…" Jamie said by her ear, suddenly grabbing her ass. Chloe pushed him back but before she could do anything else Beca was on her feet, pulling Jamie by the hair and almost throwing him against the door "Hey!" Jamie pushed Beca away.

"She told you to go." Beca stated firmly, killing him with her eyes "So you go." Jamie looked once at Chloe, and then nodded and left.

"Thanks." Chloe said after looking the door.

"No need, but what the hell was that Chlo?" Beca asked furious.

"Once I slept with Jamie." Chloe explained "It was long ago, but he always tries something when he sees me. He's an specialist in an area I really needed an specialist for, and I didn't have another chance, but I never call him unless I'm with somebody I know can prevent things from happening. So thanks a lot Becs."

Beca let herself fall on the sofa again, sighing and relaxing.

"What was that about lying?"

"He tends to get very talkative while drunk, which he gets often." Chloe explained "And you never know who hates American soldiers and will come looking for blood if they heard here lives one."

"I see." Beca nodded.

"Are you mad?" Chloe asked sitting beside her, concerned.

"Mad? Of course not Chlo, I could never be mad at you." Beca smiled squeezing her knee "I just hated that he grabbed you like that. You're not somebody else's sexual object. I just hope this is not the kind of loneliness you were talking about because you know…" Chloe looked at her starting to smile and Beca rose a hand "You have like ten f…" Chloe started laughing and pushed her playfully.

"Oh my God Beca, fuck off!" Chloe laughed her ass of, and Beca grinned at her. Maybe she just liked to see her laugh.

Beca decided to have a bath before going to bed. When she was going back to the bedroom, dressed with a pajama Chloe lend her, she heard voices inside the room and she looked from the doorframe. Chloe was knelt on the floor, her elbows on the bed, her hands intertwined, and her forehead supported on her hands.

"God, I know you can't be everywhere, but please, protect Beca, Aubrey, Jesse and dad, and let them be happy and whole forever. Don't worry about me, instead of taking care of me, help Beca find her family and please, let that be a good family like she deserves, and please, please God, don't let me without a father. I need him, he's my whole family, and I can't lose him too. I'd die." Beca had knelt too, by the doorframe, with her eyes closed and her hands intertwined on her lap. She wasn't religious -that she knew of- but she found herself supporting Chloe's decisions "I don't want professional success. I don't even need money so much, or a better home, better clothes, I don't even need to see my father again. I just need him to be okay, and my friends to be okay too. And if you have to take a life… please, please take mine. I'm not as awesome as they are, and they're strong enough to go on without me, which I'm not. Please Lord. Amen."

"Amen." Beca said too. When she looked up, Chloe was looking at her like a deer caught in headlights.

"Don't you laugh. Don't mock." Chloe said looking sad. Beca frowned entering the bedroom.

"Why would I do any of that, exactly?" Chloe shrugged.

"For being an adult who believes in a being that is beyond us and we can't see?" Beca looked serious.

"Yeah, no, I still don't see the funny part. Sorry Chlo."

"You… you don't think I'm ridiculous?" Chloe stared at her. Beca looked surprised.

"Ridiculous, you? You? That question is as ridiculous as I've seen you get Chloe. Believing is only natural, and by the way, thank you for wishing me good. Chloe…" Beca sat on the bed "You're the most wonderful human being I can remember, and even in America I doubt I'll meet someone half as great. So no, I think you're many things, but ridiculous is not one of them."

 _"Don't let her get close to me again granny." She heard herself so sharp, like if she was a kid, a really young one._

 _"Don't worry sweetie. I won't let her harm you." The old woman said hugging her. She was so tiny compared with the woman. She sure wasn't older than nine years old._

 _"No! Granny! No!" she had never heard a kid yell with so much distress in her life, and checking that it was herself caused her so much pain and confusion. Suddenly she felt so incredibly sad. Like the saddest she had ever felt, it was like she was broken inside. She opened her eyes and saw a grave "Why did you leave me alone granny Jude?" she sobbed. Somebody heard and slapped the back of her head as her wet eyes focused on just one line._

 _'Jude Geraldine Fanning (Snow) - February 6_ _th_ _1912 - June 30_ _th_ _1999'_

"Granny Jude." Beca breathed out waking up in the dark, breathing heavy. She took some painkillers from the bedside table and swallowed them and then looked around. Beside her Chloe looked like a starfish, splayed on her front with her mouth partially open, snoring softly. Beca smiled and moved closer, not moving much to avoid the pain, but enough to grab Chloe's hand. She stroked it with her thumb and soon, she was asleep.

That January 9th, after five days basically sleeping, Beca felt she needed some pure air, so Chloe lend her some clothes, and the four friends got together in New Delhi. Beca's head was much better, but Aubrey still wouldn't let her read, do math, Sudokus, or basically any mental efforts. Her ribs were better, but she was still really careful. Aubrey had brought her some kind of corset that was like an elastic bandage around her ribs, to keep them from moving too much and heal in the wrong position, and that helped her. Her wrist was still bad, but her ankle seemed much better thanks to Aubrey's recommendations and care, so she took of the bandage and walked carefully, although they went to places mostly by car. Her back seemed much better, slowly healing, and her other cuts were already closed and forming scabs.

The four friends were going out for lunch at a place in front of the Yamuna River, with views of the biggest, most amazing buildings Beca had ever seen, whose story Chloe and Jesse explained to her, and she was fascinated as they waited for their lunch sitting in some tables outside, enjoying the sun since the wind was chilly. Beca was enjoying Hindu food.

"I'll go in twelve days." Beca said suddenly. She wasn't even planning on saying that, she was just lost in her thoughts and her mouth worked on its own, but once she looked up and saw her friends' shocked glances at her, she decided to go with it.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"I'll be almost new in twelve days. I mean, look at me, five days ago I was more dead than alive, and now I'm walking around like nothing happened." Beca shrugged "Chlo, I can't wait much longer. My family, whoever they are, they probably buried an empty coffin already, and I have too much questions to wait much longer. The only reason I'm waiting so far is because I'm happy here and besides, I know I wouldn't stand such a long trip right now. And what about your father? The longer we wait the worse for him." Chloe looked down, Jesse seemed understanding, and Aubrey sighed "I love being here with you guys, and I've already promised Chloe I will very gladly be back. But I have important things to do before taking a vacation."

"That's right." Aubrey smiled "But now focus in getting better. We'll be here whenever you feel like weird languages and lack of money." Aubrey joked and Beca smiled.

"Yeah." Jesse chuckled "Oh, I'm gonna miss you shorty." Jesse waved Beca's hair and she smiled.

"I'll miss this too." Beca chuckled and looked at Chloe, who had the shadow of a smile in her face as she contemplated her food, before snapping out of her thoughts and attacking the plate again. Beca bit her lip and elbowed Chloe playfully.

"Hey!" Chloe frowned with a fake pout rubbing the arm where Beca's elbow had hit.

"I can't wait to hear what kind of adventures your father has been living to not be able to contact you." Beca said with a tiny smile. Chloe smiled a little and shook her head.

"I know you won't find him alive." Chloe whispered.

"Ah, don't be so negative!" Aubrey frowned.

"I'm not being negative Aubrey. I'm being realistic and preparing myself. He's been dead for weeks, I know that. I just hope somebody got the mind to bury him with my mom and brother." Chloe's shoulders slumped and she supported her cheek on her hand, playing with her food.

"How can you be so sure?" Jesse asked "Is that your damn gut feeling?"

"It's not a gut feeling Jesse. Is an emptiness inside that came out of the blue weeks ago after that night I was super sick and never went away." Chloe sighed "It happens every single time someone close dies, and if we're all alive here, it must be him. There's nobody else waiting for me in America, I'm not that close with anybody else anymore. I can feel it inside there's something dead and gone forever, like other times I've buried family. I'm just gonna work my ass off so I can get the money to go back and make sure they haven't thrown his body in a common grave, and visit my mom, brother and grandpas. I'm the only one who can bring them flowers or at least a bit of conversation now, I know that."

"Well, let's hope you're just sick and melancholic and he's alive and, I don't know, his daughter is an Indiana Jones, maybe he's too deep inside." Beca refused to fall from her optimism. Chloe gave her a bittersweet smile.

"I really hope you find him alive Beca. I really want you to be right."

But from that day on, as Beca got better and better, she saw Chloe get more and more low. Many times she would catch her quickly rubbing her eyes before looking at her, and they seemed permanently glassy. Her smile never reached her eyes, and she was always busy. If she wasn't taking care of Beca, she was tidying the house up or working. Aubrey and Jesse started worrying about her too, but they knew the only thing Chloe needed is for someone to tell her what had happened to the little spark of hope she had left shined brighter or completely extinguished, somebody to end her anguish of the helpless uncertainty. That was probably what was killing her the most inside, that she couldn't do anything to end her suffering except work and pray she had the money enough one day to fly back to Colorado and pay her father a nice grave or if he was alive, pay herself a new heart because her anxiety and anguish was killing her slowly in a way she doubted she could ever recover even if Mr. Beale was alright. Alive or dead, the fate of Chloe's father was definitely going to send her back to the States for a while, so Jesse and Aubrey started getting ready too for whatever happened.

Beca rushed herself and pushed herself harder to get better, not being able to stand seeing Chloe like that. She knew Chloe wanted her to go and give her news at the same time she didn't want to let Beca go, so Beca knew she had to take the initiative and rip the bandage. Plus, the slow return of her own memories was starting to make her anxious too, although lately the realistic dreams about her past were being substituted for new dreams, real ones, some a total nonsense -cartoons involved- and others were with her new friends and the places they took her to from time to time.

Sergeant Mitchell had now been in Delhi for thirteen days, and until then, she had only grown closer to the small group of friends. Jesse sometimes went with her to pick some stuff from the market, while Chloe and Aubrey were busy; the archeologist would always find interesting things to satisfy her curious mind. Aubrey and Beca would sometimes go on walks talking about anything and everything, and Beca discovered Aubrey had some kind of hidden humor, even if she seemed quite serious at first. And above it all, Beca loved the sense of home and comfort Chloe gave her, even if the redhead wasn't shinning as much and was always exhausted. Beca was feeling much better. Her head was now completely fine, her back was starting to form scars and grown new, reddish skin, her ankle was completely fine, and her wrist was getting stronger every day. Plus, her ribs had healed completely. She was anxious to go back, and she didn't see the reason to wait. Even if her regain of memories had stopped, that only meant, according to Aubrey, she had to be careful and prepare herself to manage a new rush of memories anytime, since anything could trigger them and they could get really overwhelming, mostly memories more graphic about what she had been through all the wars, and they had a certain idea already that Beca's life hadn't been exactly easy. Also, Beca's days had been amazing so far and a lot like holidays, and many nights she joined Chloe to pray or read the Bible.

So that January 17th, Beca decided she would go back to America the following day. Chloe had gifted her with a tiny notebook with a soft, leather cover, where Beca wrote down every tiny thing she remembered, and secretly, she started writing down everything about Chloe. She wrote that her full name, as Chloe confessed her one night, was Chloe Isabelle Beale, she wrote her birth date, March 9th 1989, she wrote her father was Roger Beale and was a doctor, and that her mother was Amanda Giselle Beale and had been a counselor, she wrote that her brother was Michael Skylar Beale, and that he was a Leo like Beca herself, which Chloe found cute. She wrote where Chloe had lived as a child, and the 'coordinates' of her family's graves, she wrote her University name and random facts about the Bellas, she wrote Chloe's address in India, cell phone number, and the same with Jesse and Aubrey, among other things. For Beca, it was the proof Chloe had existed, not only in her mind, but that she had smelled her scent, ate her food, slept in her bed, and seen her work too many nights. Beca knew once she was in America, everything else would look like a very good dream and she wanted to make sure she remembered Chloe was real and was waiting for her.

She let Aubrey and Jesse know she was leaving in the morning that afternoon, and they said they promised to pick them up early in the morning so they could all go with her to the Army building -that Beca swore she didn't, and at the same time she was sure of where it was- and stay with her until she had to get into a plane. Aubrey also promised she would take care of the medical talk so Beca would never have to fight a war again, which now scared Beca deeply, because she had forgotten every bit of her training. She was lucky what she learned in school engraved better in her brain.

"Still working?" Beca got out of bed to pick a glass of water up and discovered Chloe hadn't joined her in bed yet, so she went to the living room. She wasn't even surprised with the fact Chloe was still working, sighing against the pages she was looking.

"Yes." Chloe smiled tiredly. Beca smiled and got into the kitchen. After ten minutes, when Chloe was already pretty sure Beca was back to sleep, Beca emerged with a couple cups of tea and sat beside Chloe.

"Are you still investigating the Ashoka pillars?" Beca asked. Chloe had immersed herself in the investigation of Ashoka pillars, some pillars around India and part of Pakistan that, according to Chloe and Jesse, had been built following orders of king Ashoka with edicts on them, and Chloe had found something weird in one and would not drop it.

"Yes." Chloe nodded and leaned back stirring a little "It's fascinating and exhausting all at once."

"Why don't you come to bed?" Beca asked "This will still be here tomorrow."

"I can't Beca, the sooner I end the sooner I have something to tell some museum in America so they pay me and I can go back."

"And so your plan is passing out from exhaustion?" Chloe sighed and shrugged "Come on, at least let me rub your shoulders, I can see they're bothering you." Chloe nodded and leaned forward moving her hair away from her back. Beca put her hands on Chloe's shoulders and started massaging them, feeling a ton of knots under her hands "I have something important to tell you Chlo." Beca commented casually after a few minutes in silence.

"Mm?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning."

* * *

Guest chapter 3 . Feb 12

I love your writing but i just want to say that it is impossible to take a road trip from India to Pakistan because of their strained relations, but since this is all au, i guess it doesn't matter.

 _ **Oh, of course it matters. I saw on the Internet apparently there's only one road from India to Pakistan, and that's the one I wrote about, although being the Internet, you never know for sure.**_

lauren chapter 3 . Feb 11

You are in my fav writers right now. Thank you so much and update soon

 _ **Thank you so much Lauren, I'm glad you like it!**_

Guest chapter 2 . Feb 8

Dude this is great so far.

 _ **Thanks, good to hear that!**_

Guest chapter 2 . Feb 5

I love your fanfics so much! Please, update soon

 _ **So great! Yeah sure I'm trying to update more often!**_


	5. Chapter 5

_I cried with this chapteeer! Thanks everybody for your support. And special shoutout to doubleinfinity and Spidey. You girls are the highlights of my computer. Spidey, I can't even tell you how thankful I am for your country to have made you, even though I wish it had been mine or that we were from some awesome country we've never been in._

 **Chapter 5: Goodbye to my best friends.**

Beca woke up in the morning with Chloe hugging her tightly. As soon as Beca had said out loud she felt better and Aubrey had proclaimed her ribs were perfectly fine, Beca had found out the no boundaries side of Chloe, the touchiest person she had ever met, that she could remember at least. Chloe had gifted her with the most extraordinary hugs, and most caring touches, which were extremely comforting. That night, after the initial shook, Chloe had went with her to bed, hugged her tightly without saying a word, and that's exactly how Beca woke up when the sun rose and saluted them.

Aubrey and Jesse had made great use of the spare key Chloe gave them years ago, and Beca could smell goodbye pancakes and coffee. Beca smiled looking down at Chloe and kissed her forehead.

"Wake up sleepy head." She sang like usual. Chloe smiled, her beautiful eyes opening slowly and looking at her with those bags under them Beca was so used to seeing. Then, she pouted.

"Don't go." Beca smiled.

"What about your father?" Chloe shrugged and hugged her tighter "I'll come back before your birthday at the latest, okay? As soon as I can, I'll be here quicker than a lighting." Chloe nodded and pulled apart.

They were just done having breakfast when Beca realized in one side of the living room there was a backpack with Beca's military uniform next to it, folded neatly. Beca got up and walked towards it, putting her military jacket in the air to take a proper look. There weren't holes anymore, it smelled nice, and it was clean. And so were her pants, her t-shirt, her panties, and her pair of military boots. Almost shinning. Also, Beca saw a bra. Chloe and Beca had bought the brunette some underwear the prior days, and some clothes, although only a couple t-shirts and one set of pants, since Beca felt bad making Chloe waste money in her, no matter if Chloe called it investing. Chloe was still trying to have money to fly to America after all. Beca grinned realizing what Chloe had done and turned around looking at the redhead, who was still sitting on her carpet staring at her with a hint of sadness and nervousness.

"When did you do all of this?" Beca asked surprised. Chloe shrugged.

"Last night. I realized you hadn't a bag where to put your stuff and all that… also, I put your wallet and your military ID in your pockets along with the rest of your pocket stuff." Beca was speechless, so in two strides she reached Chloe, knelt next to her and hugged her with so much enthusiasm she ended up pushing Chloe on her back against the floor and she still didn't let her go, thanking her enthusiastically by her ear. Chloe laughed and then her laugh cut and she hugged Beca back tightly.

"If you try to say anything you'll cry, right?" Beca whispered still hugging her, and felt Chloe nod, so she hugged her tighter.

"Please don't become a good dream. Write so I know you're real." Chloe whispered after some moments with a broken voice, and Beca's stomach twisted remembering she was fearing the same about Chloe.

"I will. You too." Beca said, and kissed her cheek.

The drive towards the building, in Pakistan, was long and at first very silent, then it had the moments of conversation and laughter, then Beca fell asleep against the window despite her excitement, and Chloe fell asleep against her shoulder, and then they woke up when Jesse needed to know where to drive now and Beca somehow knew how to arrive. It took them twelve hours, but by seven in the afternoon, they were there, in front of some gates controlled by a uniformed soldier.

"No civilians here." The soldier said approaching Jesse's window.

"Sergeant Rebeca Mitchell here." Beca opened her window. She was dressed with her uniform and she showed the man her ID "Let us in and then run and tell the big boss here the Pakistani kidnapped and tortured me in December and this kind people found me and took care of me. I'm amnesic so I have no idea who the boss is, but you tell him or her that, and tell them I wanna go home. Understood?" Beca was firm seeing the soldier was a lower rank. The man nodded and let them in. The parked inside of the enclosure and the soldier guided them into a building filled with soldiers. Beca recognized the place and remembered some things but she cleared her mind and focused in Chloe's hand grabbing hers.

"Sergeant Mitchell! We thought we lost you forever, it's so good to be wrong!" a uniformed man told her hugging her tightly for her surprise. She soon learned he was Colonel McCarthy, and that he was the highest rank available and that they had met before many times.

The four friends explained the Colonel everything in detail, and the Colonel filled the things they didn't know. Apparently Beca had been kidnapped right before Christmas, after the team she was in was ambushed. Two American soldiers died and Beca disappeared.

"We tried to contact your family, but then again, we found nobody. We found a few Mitchells, but none said they had family in the Army, and the ones who had it were another Mitchells." The Colonel explained "Nobody asked about you either, so we just called the Pentagon, that sent a search team, that after two weeks, left empty handed. I contacted the recruiters who recruit you, but they said you had said you had no family when they first recruited you. So, what's the plan now? Should I send you to our infirmary and get you slowly back to work, or there's something else I should know?"

"Sir, Sergeant Mitchell can't do field work anymore, or deployments." Aubrey intervened. She had already explained the Colonel she was a doctor, when they explained her Beca's amnesia "It's all here." Aubrey gave him a small folder that he read quickly, taking his own time. At the end, he nodded making a small noise like 'uhm…' and looked at Beca.

"I'll have to call the Pentagon immediately, but I'm pretty sure you're off active duty, field duty and deployments, according to this. You can still be a part of the Army and work in the States in office works." The Colonel said.

"I haven't decided yet what I wanna do about that… but for now I just want to go home. To Carson City, sir, in Nevada." Beca said.

"Let me call the Pentagon, alright? I'll see what I can do. You can wait in your bedroom, I'll send someone for you… this will probably take twenty minutes if not half an hour." The Colonel said. Beca nodded.

"Where's…?" Beca started.

"271, third floor. You probably will want to pick up your things too, we haven't touched them."

Beca, Jesse, Aubrey and Chloe headed upstairs. Surprisingly for Beca, from time to time someone would stop and hug her tightly, incredibly surprised she was alive. Some faces were familiar and others completely strange, but at the end, Beca arrived to her room. The Colonel had given her the key, and she opened it without trouble. That room was quite familiar.

It was a tiny, tiny room, with just a metallic bed with some gray sheets, a chest of drawers, and a desk with a lamp and some other drawers. There was also a small mirror. The room was pretty organized and had some dust here and there. On her desk Beca found some papers and a pencil, and Beca had devoted herself to draw, apparently.

"Wow, those are pretty." Chloe commented. Beca smiled and nodded, wondering if she remembered how to paint.

"You can keep them." Beca said, Chloe grinned, and took them. The drawers were empty, except for a lighter and a box of cigarettes.

"Smoker? That's so bad for your lungs Becs." Aubrey commented.

"Not anymore." Beca took them and after making sure cigarettes were all that was in the box, threw the box on the small paper bin that was in a corner. The lighter went to her pocket, just like the pencil and the few white papers not filled with drawings. Her bed was neat, and the walls were empty too. She went to the chest of drawers and found most drawers empty, only being able to take a couple old t-shirts Beca still liked -not that there were more t-shirts- her only other set of non military pants, and a pair of socks, plus some panties and a bra. Also, she found some sneakers under her bed that despite being old and a bit dirty, she loved. She put all of that in her backpack, except the sneakers, that she put in a plastic bag she found under her bed and tied the bag to the handles of her backpack.

"You're such a weird person Becs." Jesse commented "Barely no clothes for being a girl, no photographs, nothing too personal…"

"I know." Beca nodded. They didn't have much time to think about it because soon the Colonel himself was back.

He explained Beca the Pentagon had asked for her to fly there., where they would pick her up at the airport. He told her she would be joining the flight of a Pentagon worker who was just about to go back to Arlington County, where the Pentagon was, that day too, and he told her they wanted to talk to her in the Pentagon to catch the kidnappers and also lend her all the help she asked for to compensate for the damage, plus give her a medical revision to make sure she was fine, but the Colonel assured her in the Pentagon they knew of Beca's desires and would pay her a flight to Nevada in a couple days at the very most.

They were now in a hurry since the Pentagon worker had just delayed his flight for them, so Jesse drove them following the Colonel, that was in another car, towards the hangar and the flight deck close by. Beca felt so nervous and excited and sad, and so many things at once, she felt like throwing up, so she focused in Chloe's hand, that hadn't left her hand.

"Alright." The Colonel said as they stepped out of the cars once they were in the flight desk. There was a small military plane waiting there "The plane makes one layover in Berlin and then keeps going until Arlington County. Get ready to spend the whole night and a big part of the night in the air." Beca nodded nervously "You just go with Mr. Daniels. A car will pick both of you up at the airport in Arlington County, and carry you to the Pentagon. There, the Secretary of the Army Mister Patrick Murphy, and the Army's Chief of Staff Mister Mark Milley will be waiting for you. Good luck Sergeant." The colonel squeezed her hand and after exchanging a few words with Mr. Daniels, he left.

"Okay, Sergeant, I'm Seeley Daniels, work for the Pentagon. Say your goodbyes quick, we'll wait for you okay?" Beca nodded again, a bit overwhelmed. Her three friends stood close by nervously. Mr. Daniels ran to the plane and Beca looked nervously at her friends with her backpack hanging from her shoulder.

"Alright… well, this is for you. Jesse… Aubrey… Chloe." Beca took three folded papers from a pocket and gave each a letter with their name "I don't have words… I just…" she chuckled sensing her eyes getting wet like Aubrey's and Chloe's."

"Aw, our Sergeant cares!" Jesse joked, although his eyes were watery too "Come on girl, it was only a couple weeks, we had fun."

"We did." Beca nodded "And I do care. Deeply, about each of you. I'm forever incredibly thankful for having met you… and for being able to call you my best friends." Beca shrugged "But let's not get too sentimental, I'll be back, just wait a month, tops. I wouldn't miss little flame's birthday." She added looking at Chloe with a smirk, and she smiled through the tears "It's normal if I'm kind of anxious right? I mean… what if I have more and better family than I thought and I never remember them or…"

"You'll be fine. You survived wars, didn't you? This is a piece of cake for you." Jesse said.

"And if it's not… you have our numbers and addresses, give us a call or something." Aubrey smiled "Plus, you probably have good friends waiting for you over there, who miss you and maybe you'll end up remembering them. As long as you don't forget us…"

"I won't… I'll be back, for God's sakes." Beca giggled and they half laughed half cried too "I feel nobody is waiting for me to come back over there more than you three." Beca said getting serious.

"Sergeant!" somebody called from the plane.

"Okay, let's rip the fucking strip!" Beca smiled and hugged Jesse tightly.

"Take care shorty, don't let them hurt you again." Jesse said against her ear "We'll miss you." Beca smiled at him and nodded hugging Aubrey tightly too.

"Call us if you need anything alright? We'll find money if we have to." Aubrey said "And take care of those wounds, the mental ones too."

"I will, thank you." Beca and Chloe exchanged a smile and Chloe breathed deeply and nodded for herself like reassuring herself, dropping the arms she had kept hugging herself until then "Looks like we're back to sleeping alone." Chloe smiled.

"Yeah… it'll… it'll be snowy in America, right?" Chloe commented.

"Probably." Beca nodded.

"Well… then you should really have this." Chloe quickly removed the foulard that had belonged to her mother and that she had around her neck and put it around Beca's adjusting it properly and closing her jacket to the top "Oh, and… so you always know what time it is, to call us." Chloe took her watch and gave it to Beca "Don't lose the North. Or the South." She shrugged. Beca nodded.

"I can't ac…"

"Don't worry." Chloe cut her "She would want you to have it. I already have lots of her, including the hair and the memories so…" Chloe shrugged "You sure will need it more than I will. Just… don't get yourself in trouble, not even for my father, eat healthy, don't be a stranger, and make good decisions. And if you're in trouble, let us now, we're 24h available. I mean it." Beca nodded.

"I will be too. And I'll take care of this foulard like if it was a treasure, which it is. Write to me guys… if I get a phone, I'll let you know the number." Beca said "Well…" She opened her arms to Chloe, who hugged her tightly "Oh, I'll miss bone-crushing hugs."

"You're brave Beca. Everything is going to be okay." Chloe whispered by her ear.

"I know… and you're the strongest person I know. It'll be okay. I'll be home before you know it."

"You're going home."

"No." Beca playfully bite her earlobe and then kissed her cheek "I'm leaving it. How ironic it is than from almost dying I ended up finding the happiness I probably spent my whole life looking for uh? And ginger… don't work so much. I'll get the money." Chloe nodded, hugging her tightly "Thanks for everything sweetheart. You're the best person I know. Promise me you'll take care of yourself, uh?"

"I promise. You too?" Chloe cried against her ear.

"Yes. I left something under your pillow, so you have something from me too." Beca commented "Love you Chloe-Bear."

"Love you too Bec-Bec." Chloe breathed deeply and pulled apart after kissing her cheek. Beca smiled through her own tears and cleaned Chloe's tears with her thumbs fixing her eyes on hers as she did so, before kissing her cheek "Come on, go sergeant, the adventure's waiting!"

"Being here was the best adventure ever already." Beca grinned looking at the three friends and stepping back as someone yelled her name from the plane again. Chloe seemed to be pulling strength out of somewhere and smiled at her, crossing her arms over her chest again. Aubrey put an arm around Chloe as she mouthed 'Don't worry' to Beca. Jesse smiled standing next to the girls "I'll bring bagels next time." The three laughed and she chuckled before getting serious. "Don't be kidnapped, take care, and… well, love you people. You truly are an amazing, curious trio. This isn't a goodbye… is a see you later, alligator."

Between shouts of goodbyes, Beca entered the plane, and then she waved goodbye from the plane until the door closed and she ran to the window and smiled waving through it, looking at the three lonely friends hugging each other while waving bye at her. She already missed them.

Guest chapter 4 . Feb 17

Damn I love your fanfics! They're so different and interesting! Can't wait to read more **Thanks a lot guest! I'm trying to post as often as possible**

Mia chapter 4 . Feb 14

I love it **Thanks Mia, always a pleasure to hear from you**


	6. Chapter 6

_I'm sorry I didn't update in almost four days, you want to know what happened? Well for once one fucking good hell of a thing. I got wiped by a German, fell in love and got lucky enough to be loved back, and then now I forget even how to write or where do I leave my things and I'm living those things I read and write about but never had or lived, so it's all new and pretty and so I get crazy. So yay! But I swear I will get my shit together and my brain will be back to fully write and stuff and update on time. Somehow._

 _So enjoy this chapter, not giving clues this time! Thanks to every single reviewer, you're all amazing and I'm so glad you like the stories!_

 **Chapter 6: A place to live in.**

The flight was exhausting. Beca spent it mostly asleep. She woke up for the first time while flying over the Atlantic, already feeling jetlag from seeing it was sun, and then night, and then sun, and then night, but she hadn't spend more than a few hours in the plane. Feeling chilly, she opened her backpack to find another jacket and then smiled tearfully, seeing there it was perfectly folded, the plaid warm blanket of Chloe Beca had practically owned since she was rescued. It still smelled like home and Chloe. Beca wrapped it around her, and fell asleep in no time. Even in a military plane, they took thirty eight hours to arrive.

Beca was practically a zombie despite the naps when, at almost one in the morning of December 19th Arlington County time, they arrived the military airport. She didn't feel like talking to the soldiers, but she imagined she had to. She had slept, eat, drank and everything else in the plane after all.

"Welcome to America, Sergeant Mitchell." Secretary of the Army Mister Patrick Murphy, and the Army's Chief of Staff Mister Mark Milley were there to receive her and shake her hand. Chloe had been right, Virginia was snowy.

"Thank you Mr. Murphy, Mr. Milley…" Beca smiled politely.

"Come with us, please. We have a few things to discuss with you." Mr. Milley said, guiding her towards a meetings room. They sat and offered Beca a glass of water, that Beca accepted thankful.

"Colonel McCarthy has already told us everything you told him with detail, so we'd just like to talk about your future, Sergeant Mitchell, even more after Doctor Posen's reports on your health." The Secretary of the Army, Patrick Murphy, spoke. Beca nodded slowly "Given that you don't remember your life, we've taken the liberty of find it for you." He pushed a folder over the table towards her. Beca opened it as Murphy told her out loud the most important facts about herself "Daughter of attorney Jordan Anthony Mitchell and teacher Ruth Joanne Fanning, you were born and raised in Seattle, Washington from 1989 to 2003, when your mother divorced your father alleging irreconcilable differences and moved with you to San Francisco, California, where you completed High School, and immediately after that, in June 2007, you ran away from home. Police was never able to find you or determine the causes of your march, but I guess you were a teenager." Beca frowned a little at him, not catching the logic of the excuse "So anyway, next thing we know about you, in August 2009 you were in Arizona and being recruited into the US Army. After a quick training, you were sent to Iraq that November, where you completed your training and served until September 2010. After that, you had the money to rent a small apartment in Prescott, Arizona, where you established yourself. You worked as a bartender, dogs walker, DJ, mail's lady, cleaning lady and locksmith for two years, until you were deployed again in August 2012 to Afghanistan. You came back in July 2013, and kept having small jobs for two years, during which you had enough money to move to Carson City, Nevada, where you bought a small house and a second hand Nissan. In September 2015 you were sent to Pakistan. During war there was an explosion, where a truck stepped into a land-mine and you were near, and that's when we lost you."

Beca nodded slowly.

"I'm afraid I lost Visa card, all my keys…" Beca started and the man shook his head.

"You left it all at your bedroom in Pakistan but don't worry, when you disappeared, they sent us everything." Mr. Milley took a box that he had been carrying and gave it to Beca. Inside there were car keys, house keys, a cardholder with her credit card, glasses -Beca then realized, when she tried then on, she saw better from close with the glasses on, but only things that were really close. Must be reading glasses- and a cell phone "When you disappeared, the Army made sure your house was paid and watched to avoid robbery, at least until three months after your abduction, in hopes that some family would come, so you don't have to worry about anything."

"Wow. Thank you sir, this is amazing." Beca said.

"We also took the liberty of checking your bank account so you could see how much you've been saving, apparently you barely spent money." Milley said giving her a paper. There it was the password for Beca's bank account, and all the important data. Beca's heart flipped when she saw she had almost fifty thousand dollars saved in her bank account "Your bank has also been informed you were abducted and came back."

"I'm speechless, thanks." Beca smiled sincerely.

"Now" Murphy started with a little smile "we wanted to apologize for all the damage suffered. Since the only jobs you can have in the Army now are civilian jobs, we have made a list with all the jobs available for you, you can just think about it, take the time you need, and call me with your decision." He handed her an envelope "The list is inside along with my card. If you'd like to just become a veteran and leave the Army, you can also let me know at any time. For now, you won't be called for work, and you'll receive a monetary compensation once per month during six months, of three hundred dollars, for all the damage caused. Also, all the medical service you require for the next five years will be paid for us. And your phone service is paid for the next two months, so you can communicate with your loved ones and let them know you're good." Beca's jaw dropped.

"Sir…"

"We gave up on you too soon, Sergeant. Welcome home." Murphy smiled at her.

"Is there a but? Do I have to like, do something?" Beca asked.

"No, you're completely free as the adult you are, to do whatever you want while the law allows it. But please don't take longer than three weeks to tell me what you've decided on employment topic. It won't change the help you'll be receiving or anything I've said, only that you'll be a bit richer and will have something to do." Murphy said, and Beca nodded "Now, I suggest you to go to bed. A chauffeur will lead you to a room in a hotel. In eighteen hours, he'll pick you up and take you to the hospital for a check-up."

"Right." Beca nodded.

"If you need anything else, call me Sergeant. We are at your service." They stood up and Murphy shook her hand "You'll be picked up after dinner for a flight to Carson City, where another car will be waiting for you to take you to your place. It was a pleasure meeting you."

Beca fell on her bed in the hotel not believing everything was so good. She was imagining everything would be incredibly complicated and difficult but it wasn't. She took her phone, and casually remembered her password, so she turned it on, and went through her contacts. Any of them sounded familiar, so she inserted three new ones, Jesse, Aubrey and Chloe, and then video called Chloe.

"Beca? Oh my God it's Beca!" Chloe yelled at the phone "You're on speaker honey." Beca smiled seeing her three friends on screen "How are you, what happened?"

"Well…" Beca told them everything that happened with all detail and her friend's jaws dropped too "I think I'll try to sleep now, before the medical check-up."

"That's a good idea." Chloe smiled at her "What time is it there?" Beca checked Chloe's watch.

"Half past three in the morning. If everything goes fine as the doc, as I believe it will, I'll spend the whole day tomorrow in Carson City and then I'll take a flight to Denver early the next morning, alright?" Chloe nodded "Okay. Ah, and thanks for the blanket Chloe. And for everything else the sneaky you probably put in the backpack."

"No idea what you're talking about." Chloe smirked "Thanks for the letter. It was amazing."

"Yeah, thanks Becs!" Aubrey grinned at her.

"Okay…! Night night buddies, call you tomorrow! Love you!"

Beca, however, couldn't sleep. She was too excited or too nervous, and she just couldn't, not even with the blanket around her. She finally fell asleep almost at seven in the morning.

Beca's schedule was absolutely ill-adjusted. She woke up at noon, had brunch and then got dressed and sat to take a look to that jobs list she had gotten that day. However, any of those jobs seemed appealing to her. That afternoon, she went to the hospital as planned, and spent an amount of hours having all kinds of tests.

"Very well Beca." Doctor Ross, the specialist that was assigned to her, smiled at her as they sat in her office after all the tests to see the results "Let's take a look, shall we?" Beca smiled awkwardly and nodded and the doctor started taking a look to all the X-Rays, scans, blood tests, etc. "Alright, you had a little head fracture that has healed pretty good, a twisted wrist and ankle, both healed completely and some broken ribs that also seem to have healed completely, so you have nothing broken." Beca nodded in understanding "Your brain seems a little bit swollen, but nothing to worry about as long as it passes in the next few weeks, and I'll transfer all of this results to your physician in Carson City so she keeps checking that. You don't see well from very close like to read, but I've seen that's been since you were little, so it's nothing abnormal." Beca nodded again "Physically, you're fine, except of course your back. We've cleaned it and disinfected it, and we'll be paying it close attention. I'm only going to send you some vitamins and some painkillers for those headaches you told me you had earlier. Are they frequent?"

"No, it's just… sometimes in the morning, after a dream of my memories, or after too much mental activity, or late at night after a whole day." Beca explained.

"Alright, well it's normal that your brain is a bit oversensitive and it will be for a few days more, so I'll give you some painkillers you can take every five hours if you're in pain." The doctor explained "Can you sleep normally?"

"Yes… sometimes I feel very tired for a whole day, and sleep all day, but that's not often."

"That's a normal thing too, and it will go away on its own in a few days." The doctor assured me "As your brain's swelling reduces, you'll probably regain more memories. They can go from stupid nonsense stuff, to moderately important things, manageable things, difficult things, overwhelming stuff, and even memories so hard you could get a panic attack and shut down completely. So I'm gonna send you to a therapist in Carson City and I want you to see him a couple times per month, more if you needed more, and just talk to him. He'll teach you relaxation techniques so you can handle big rushes of memories."

"Okay, thanks." Beca nodded.

"In the meantime, I want you to not overstress yourself, take it easy, rest, relax, and don't overwork your brain. If you're doing something and start having headaches, before taking any pill try to lie down for a bit, and if it doesn't go away, then take the pill."

Beca probably disobeyed all of that the second she put a feet on the street in front of her house. Again, it was a familiar place, although she didn't remember much. Her house wasn't too big but not too small, and again, it practically lacked decoration and anything that wasn't strictly useful and necessary, so Beca could see she had really tried to keep her money controlled. Her car was parked at a small parcel of gravel that was beside her house. As she stood in front of her house she observed the house at her right was stick to hers, and that there was a tall wooden wall at her right that separated her site or plot from her neighbors, and surrounded the whole plot from the sides and back, leaving it open in the front but also, behind the space where her car was parked the wooden wall was too, protecting a tiny garden.

Beca entered her beige house, and stood by the door. The corridor went from the main door straight into the house until it ended in the tiny garden's door. At her right there was a kitchen. She walked more into the house and saw next to the kitchen were the stairs. They had a couple steps forward before continuing to the left, again curving to the left, and there you were in the second floor. But she decided to explore the first floor yet. There was a cupboard under the stairs where Beca saw she had a broom, a dustpan, a mop, a bucket, and other cleaning stuff. In front of the stairs an arch was the entry to the living room. It occupied all that side of the corridor, so it was bigger. At her right, next to the big window to the garden, there was a small TV, a coffee table, a small sofa, and a beanbag. Then in front of her there was a big bookcase, and to her left, a small rectangular table with four chairs. The house was neat except for the dust, so Beca decided to clean it later. She went into her small closed garden. She had no furniture there, but Beca smiled seeing it was all covered in snow. She went to the second floor. There was a corridor parallel to the one downstairs. In what would be over the kitchen, there was a small toilet, and then another room that was a bigger bathroom. And in what would be over the living room were two bedrooms. One had a desk with a laptop, headphones on the side, and a big bed that was shoved to aside and used as a big sofa, as Beca could see. There was also a bookcase there. The other bedroom, whose window lead to the garden, was a small bedroom with a big bed, two bedside tables and a built-in closet and a chest of drawers that was pretty small too.

Beca devoted the whole day to clean the house and the car, pick up the mail, and empty her backpack, putting everything in place. Beca sat on her bed for that.

"Oh." Beca smiled. Between her clothes it was one of Chloe's warmest sweaters. Beca had slept once over Chloe's shoulder while the redhead wore it and Beca had complimented its softness and how warm it seemed. Beca felt her eyes watery seeing how the redhead had given her a sweater, her mom's foulard, and her own watch "Aw, Chlo…" it was a gray sweater with long neck and long sleeves, and still smelled like Chloe.

Beca decided to shower, change, and call the redhead. She was about to throw on the sweater when an envelope fell from it. Beca saw her name written on it with Chloe's handwriting. She smiled and pulled a letter out of it.

 _Dear Beca:_

 _I hope America treats you well. I haven't been there since Christmas 2014, but the way I remember it, it's not so bad. In case it doesn't treat you well, I hope the fifty dollars inside this envelope help you somehow, or at least enough to let me know so I can go to your rescue._

 _Now you're sleeping so peacefully, I guess there aren't memories tonight, only dreams with cartoons like the one you told me the other day. It's funny that you dream with cartoons when I don't own a TV, but I guess your brain still remembers the good parts of your childhood. It's funny, I don't know much about you, and you don't know much about you either, but I can tell you're such a good person… and I know you deserve so many good things, I can't comprehend how anybody could do you so much bad. But I promise I'll always welcome you here. Even if you found out you weren't such a good person… because the Beca I know deserves all the best._

 _Before you came, I was used to being more or less alone, well of course I spend a lot of time with Aubrey -when she wasn't working- and Jesse, even work with him a lot, but then I was usually alone at night, in the mornings, or in a daily basis. We just have stuff to do and not always time enough to be with our people as we'd wish. I had picked up homeless before. One robbed me and ran away, another stayed for a week, then found a job at a café and now gives me a free coffee every now and then, and another was a kid and after five days we found her parents and they were so grateful they gave me a thousand Indian Rupees, that are like twenty US Dollars. Sometimes I've had to bury homeless people. So nobody ever stayed as long as you've stayed, nobody ever made me feel so good, and I'm so grateful I met you._

 _No matter if you decide not to come back at the end, despite all you've insisted that you'd come, no matter if you never find my father… you'll always be one of my best friends and I will always hold you close. Or your memory. While you were here, you were everything but a weight. You cooked yummy stuff when you felt like it, made sure I was comfy and warm when I fell asleep in random places, you treated me so well, and your massages were awesome. I've loved having your company in the darkness of the night, and your presence for some reason always made me feel so safe and secure, Beca, you wouldn't even believe it. I loved having you around, I loved explaining you things and see you look at me with genuine interest like a kid, I loved every bit of your weird humor. The thing is Beca, you can't even imagine how much I'm gonna miss you. But it's okay, because you'll be doing very important things in the US._

 _I'm sure once you were an honorable soldier. Maybe you saved many lives. I don't know how your parents were, or what kind of childhood did you have, but even if it was bad, it's good, because all of it made you the great person that you are today. I know that next time I see you you'd probably be different, because you'd probably recover memories that'll affect you badly, but I want you to know that I love you, and that I'll still love you even if you're broken inside. I still felt affection for you as I pulled bugs out of your back so…_

 _I hope you're good and that everything goes fine. You deserve happiness and I hope you find it and that your family is better than you think. Having you here was my pleasure, and if I could do all of it all over again… I would. Because you made me feel better than I've felt in a long time. I know there are many things of me you'd never understand, like how can I go from cheerful and miss happiness to miss depression, but I guess those are the moments when my natural happy personality mixes with the damage of bad past experiences. I might be a weirdo… but if you need me, I'll be there. No matter what._

 _Sorry for the times I hurt you by accident while trying to heal you._

 _Love you,_

 _Chlo._

Beca smiled with tearful eyes and rubbed her eyes as she looked into the envelope. As Chloe said, the green papers were there. Beca half laughed half cried and took her cell to call Chloe.

"Hi Becs! Long time no see!" Chloe said cheerfully. Beca couldn't avoid a mix between a giggle and a sob and Chloe frowned miles away from her "Beca? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Beca said with a crying voice and breathed deeply to calm down, snuggling on her bed sitting against the wall of the head of the bed "Put the camera, I wanna see you." Chloe did so and Beca smiled looking at her through tearful eyes. It was around four in the afternoon in Delhi, and Chloe was snuggled in her sofa, smiling at her.

"What's wrong?"

"So far nothing." Beca said and cleared her voice. Chloe's beautiful eyes stared at her in concern "I'm at my tiny house in Carson City, I arrived early this morning and I've been cleaning it all day. And I just stopped and read your letter." Chloe smiled biting her lip "Chloe… you're a wonderful, wonderful human being. You know that, right? I fucking love you." Chloe giggled.

"I assume you liked it?"

"Like it? Chlo, I don't even have words… you… you saved my life when I didn't even want to live, and gave me the desire to live again. You offered me your house, your clothes, your food, your attention, your caring embrace, you gave me your money even though you're trying so desperate to have money to come for your father, you gave me your late mother's foulard, your watch, your support and that beautiful letter… and I don't even know… I don't deserve you. And you're amazing and God Chlo, I'm gonna hug you so hard next time I see you, you'll realize nobody has ever really hugged you before." Beca said.

"I guess I must really like you, right?" Chloe smiled at her. Beca stared intently at her and then nodded.

"I guess." Beca whispered losing herself in those big blue eyes. Chloe nodded and cleared her throat.

"So, guess what Jesse made me this morning!" Chloe moved the phone and showed Beca a pillow next to her "Seems familiar? Maybe you've met in the mirror?" Beca started laughing loudly seeing Jesse had drew Beca on the pillow, and Chloe grinned at the camera.

"Hey, I haven't shown you my place!"

That was how Beca spent the following half an hour of her life showing Chloe her house and listening to Chloe's commentaries and laughing with her. She also showed her the covered in snow Nissan, the covered in snow garden and the covered in snow street where she lived.

"Hey do you have actual clothes at home?" Chloe asked.

"Yes and I love them!" Beca showed her the closet "Look at this for God's sakes I have great taste."

"You do!" Chloe smiled and Beca let herself fall on the bed again "So what did the doc said yesterday?"

"She said I'm great, surprisingly or not so surprisingly enough." Beca smiled "The only thing that worries her is my brain damage, so she sent me to a therapist twice per month so I can deal with my memory recovery."

"Did you remember anything else?"

"Not really life things." Beca shrugged "But this house sounds familiar. And my car. And for some reason I knew where the soap is when I went to have a shower." Beca explained.

"Why don't you visit your parents?" Chloe suggested.

"I have a bad feeling about them Chlo." Beca said "I was planning on writing to my mother, who seems to be the only one who has tried to contact me. A short thing, only to let her know I'm good, without telling her about my amnesia so she doesn't try to take advantage, and to tell her I'll contact her when I feel like it. Your father matters more to me right now, and look!" Beca waved a plane ticket for Denver in front of her with a grin "The plane leaves in fifteen hours, I can't wait. I actually took my laptop, which somehow I know how to use and all the passwords including my phone one, and booked a room at a hotel in Denver close to your house. Initially I plan on staying a couple weeks, more if it's necessary, but my brain needs some rest from so many planes."

"That's great, you'll like Denver." Chloe smiled at her "Thanks Becs."

"No need." Beca smiled "And you can stop worrying about money. I've seen my bank account and let's say I'm pretty damn good saving money. I have enough to pay you, Jesse and Aubrey like fifty flights to America in first class."

"Really?" Chloe grinned and Beca nodded "How come you saved so much?"

"I'm starting to think I didn't save it, just that, after having lived in the streets, I guess there were little things to me that seemed really necessary, and I was probably like 'why would I buy this?' and only buy things strictly necessary. Or maybe I was afraid of living in the streets again." Beca explained, and Chloe nodded in understatement. "Also, I was thinking on finding a job once I figure out what happened to your dad."

"That would be a wise decision, probably. Do you know already what kind of jobs do you want?"

"No, but I've decided once I've taken advantage of being a soldier enough I'll leave the Army for good." Beca said "Then I'll think whether I stay here or sell everything and buy me a nice place in another state or country. And then, I'll figure out what job can I have depending on where I live." Chloe nodded.

"I was thinking about selling my place and going back to US. Once you come and tell me how's my dad." Chloe said "I can find a job easily in America." Beca nodded.

"Maybe we can find a place together?" Beca asked "We were great roomies." Chloe smiled.

"I'd love that."


	7. Chapter 7

_Since I'm seeing I'm maybe updating so fast you guys don't have time to catch up with the reading and review, I've decided to let around_ _ **5 days or a week**_ _pass between chapter and chapter_ _ **in all my fics**_ _it'll be five days or I'll be a week depending on how I see you guys are doing and stuff, since I know seeing suddenly so many chapters up when you guys probably have tons of things to do can be a bit overwhelming right?_

 _Also, thanks a lot Mila for all your support, you're a great awesome friend! And good luck with that awesome play of yours._

 _About this chapter, the title says it all._

 **Chapter 7: Plot twist.**

The first thing Beca thought as she stepped out of her hotel in Denver was 'I'm gonna die frozen' because it was so cold she had to zip up her coat. She had rented a car for the days she would be there, and she used it to drive to Denver, checking the GPS in her car more than what she would like. Finally, she arrived at Chloe's childhood house, a big house that was beautiful. Beca made a photo with her cell and sent it to Chloe with a smirk, stepping out of the house. She approached the main door, tried to look through the window and, seeing nothing, she rang the doorbell several times, but there was no noise or movement. She then went to the house in front of that one, where an old lady attended her.

"Good afternoon. I'm sorry but does Roger Beale live there?" Beca pointed to the house.

"Yes." The woman nodded "I haven't seen him in a few weeks though, last time I saw him he was on his way to work."

"But his car is right there." Beca said confused.

"Yes, but he goes by bus, because he's a doctor and he's obsessed with contaminating little." Beca nodded in understatement "I'm sorry but who are you?" Beca nodded and showed her the military ID she owned.

"Sergeant Rebeca Mitchell from the US Army." Beca said and shoved the ID back into her pocket "I'm friends with Mr. Beale's daughter, Chloe. She's very worried about her father, from who she hasn't known in a long time, and I promised I would do whatever I could do find him. Well, thanks for your help madam." Beca smiled politely and turned back.

"Is Chloe alright there in India?" Beca turned around surprised "Last I knew Roger said she's very happy and was doing things she was very passionate about, and he was so happy to hear that."

"She's good. She'll be better once she knows about her father." Beca smiled "Oh, if you figured out anything about him, could you please call me?" Beca found a small notebook she had taken with her and a pen and wrote her name and cell number before tearing off the page and giving it t the lady "Thanks." The woman took it a nodded with a smile.

"Good afternoon, Sergeant!"

Next, Beca decided to go to all hospitals close by, starting for the one where Mr. Beale worked. Beca knew Chloe's aunts, uncles and cousins didn't live in Denver, since the family was originally from Raleigh, in North Carolina, and they hadn't been able to go to Denver yet to investigate, although Beca knew they had told Chloe they would go soon, as soon as they could, because they were worried too. Chloe's paternal grandparents and uncle lived in Raleigh, his uncle William and his wife Cathy had three children, Grace, who was married to a David and had Sofia back in October, Ethan and Daniela. They all lived in Raleigh too and were busy people, even though they were really close to Chloe. Not like the Radcliffe, Chloe's maternal family, who had distanced after Amanda's suicide. Her maternal grandparents were dead, and she had Uncle Owen, married to Aunt Marie and parents of cousins Jane -who had Richard a year ago with her husband Simon- and Stella, who was four months pregnant and married to Alan. Chloe also had her maternal Aunt Brittany, married to Uncle Hector. They were parents of her cousin Gale, who along with his wife Suzanne had Aria a bit more than a year ago, and Emma, who was married to Dylan and were parents of Brian, born almost a year ago, and now they were expecting the second baby. Her maternal family was older than her paternal family, and lived in Ohio. So nobody had really investigated Roger's vanish.

Beca went to the hospital in Denver were Roger was a Pediatrician Surgeon, and walked confidently towards the desk.

"Excuse me." She flashed her Army ID and that caught the nurse's attention "I'm Sergeant Rebeca Mitchell. I'm looking for a friend who works here, Doctor Roger Beale, pediatrician?" the nurse suddenly looked sad.

"I'm sorry." The nurse said "Roger died." Beca's heart stopped for a second and she looked at her in disbelief.

"What? When? What happened?" Beca asked astonished. She didn't expect her search to finish so soon.

"I'm sorry, unless you're family I can't give you the details. Not even if you are a Sergeant."

"Listen" Beca went firm "His daughter lives in Delhi, alright? She's an archeologist, she doesn't have money to come, she lives in a tiny apartment in the middle of nowhere and she hasn't heard from her father in weeks. I'm her best friend and when I visited her a few days ago she was anguished and anxious to know from her father, the only family she has left and alive, and I promised I'll find him. Now, do you want me to call her, and break the news so rudely for her, tell her she not only lost her mother as a child and her older brother as an even younger child, but now her father too, and then put her on speaker so you can shock her with more answers, or would you please tell me so I can travel there right now and hug her while she cries?" the nurse seemed shocked, and then nodded.

"Alright… He passed away December 27th, he had a sudden heart attack and died in the moment, here while he worked." Beca nodded.

"Why has nobody in her family been told?" Beca asked.

"We only had knowledge of his daughter, and we didn't have her number. We tried and tried, and called her once, but she didn't pick up."

"Didn't you call again? For God's sakes maybe she was in the shower, or sleeping, or working and she didn't know the number…"

"No, sorry. I know it's very badly done but I wasn't in charge of that." The nurse said. Beca nodded and sighed.

"Was he buried? Did he have a funeral?"

"He had a quick funeral, only his workmates went, and he was buried next to his wife."

Beca drove to the cemetery while trying to call Chloe, who wouldn't pick up. Beca stood in front of Chloe's family graves. There was only a really big tombstone that seemed new. It said 'Michael Skylar Beale, July 21th 1982 - September 3rd 1998', 'Amanda Giselle Beale (Radcliffe), October 4th 1957 - March 1st 2003', 'Roger David Beale, August 29th 1957 - December 27th 2015'. Beca felt sadness gulp her insides and she sat in front of the grave, putting a bunch of flowers she had bought on the grass. She tried to call Chloe and again no answer. Since it was four in the afternoon in Denver, it was four in the morning in Delhi, so maybe she was sleeping. The last time she had connected in Whatsapp had been at five in the morning Denver time, so five in the morning of the prior day in Delhi. She tried calling her a couple times more, without an answer. She left her a hundred messages 'News on your father. TAKE THE PHONE.' She sighed, seeing Chloe must be deep asleep for once, and looked at the phone. In ten minutes she had reserved a flight for Delhi, even though she was deeply jetlagged and her brain wasn't liking it, and then stared at the stone.

"Hi." She whispered "I'm Beca, I'm a friend of Chloe. She would be here if she could, but don't worry, I'll bring her here as soon as possible. I'll go see her tonight… although I may need a couple days to arrive. That's not going to be funny but anyway… I really, really care about Chloe. She's… she's the best thing in my life, you know? So don't worry for her. I'll take care of her. I promise."

Beca then stood up and ran to her rented car. She had to pack up her things and fly to Nevada right then so she could change luggage and take the first flight to Delhi. She couldn't go there with winter clothes, it wasn't as chilly there, so it wasn't a matter of fashion. Once she was in Nevada, it was already seven in the afternoon, and the first flight to Delhi left at nine, so she made her luggage quickly -only a backpack and a small suitcase she found in her house- and left to the airport, where she tried to call Chloe twice again. The redhead hadn't connected into Whatsapp either. Beca was starting to get worried and called Aubrey.

"Beca, hey, great to hear from you?"

"When was the last time you heard, saw or spoke to Chloe?" Beca asked, and Aubrey seemed shocked.

"Uh… I had lunch with her yesterday, I was gonna call her today to invite her again. Why?"

"I've been trying to call her for four hours already without success. She won't reply my texts either, and hasn't seen facebook since your yesterday afternoon at five." Beca said "Is she okay?"

"Oh, well, that's weird but I guess she was working. Sometimes she doesn't have coverage."

"Anyway, I'm at the airport now, in Nevada. I'll be in Delhi in around forty five hours, can you or someone pick me up?"

"Yes sure, just let me know when you're less than five hours away with the landing time and the airport. Is everything okay Becs?"

"Just… Aubrey, just find Chloe as soon as possible, alright? It's about her father."

"Is he okay?"Aubrey said concerned.

"I found him. The rest, I'd prefer not to talk about it on the phone, at least until I've spoken with Chloe first. I gotta go, love you Aubs."

"Love you!" Beca hung up and walked to the gates.

Beca was reasonably exhausted when she finally dragged her feet and her luggage through the airport in Delhi. Her head pounding, imagining how angry her doctor would be, and her face needed to feel fresh air. She frowned when she saw Jesse and Aubrey at the far distance, but no Chloe, and they looked more worried and anxious than happy to see her. Beca walked faster, her mind waking up even faster, and hugged them both at once.

"Where's Chloe?" Beca asked.

"We haven't heard from her since the day we had lunch with her, two days ago." Jesse replied taking her luggage.

"What?" Beca panicked "Where is she?"

"We have no idea. We're going to her place now, you need to see it." Aubrey said as they practically ran outside "We called the Embassy, they've made an order of search. She isn't picking up her phone, nobody has seen her since January 23rd Beca, her neighbors didn't know a thing or didn't want to say a thing, and the fruit shop the same. But somebody took her." They entered the car and Jesse quickly put the luggage in the trunk while Aubrey started the engine.

"We think it has something to do with the Ashoka Pillars" Jesse explained getting into the backseat "Chloe realized one of them seemed a very good falsification, it was very very hard to tell it wasn't a real one, but it was a falsification. She was trying to found out who took the real one and why, and whether it had to do with the government here or not. The day we had lunch with her, she told us she was really close to finding out something really important, but that we were safer the lest we knew. It was something big, she wouldn't talk about it. We had no idea Beca. And now she's gone. We've been trying to find her… but no success so far."

"God." Beca closed her eyes and stroked her temple.

"I know it's hard, but you need to calm down." Aubrey said looking at her for a moment as she drove "This is really bad for your brain."

"I know." Beca nodded.

"What happened to Roger, Beca?" Jesse asked.

"He had a heart attack two days after Christmas." Beca ignored their reactions "He's dead. He didn't even give his mates a chance to save him, it was instant death. Then things were done real bad and nobody was ever properly informed."

"Oh my God…" Aubrey breathed out.

"We need to find her." Jesse whispered "We can't let anything happen to her."

"You're right." Beca nodded "That's why the second we arrive Chloe's house, we need to track her steps and see what she found out, so we know where she is. Knowing Chloe, she probably left tracks somewhere for us."

Beca was right. The apartment was a mess. Things were thrown over the floor, and it had been registered in deep. Aubrey and Jesse had found it like that when they came after Beca's call. The carpet was thrown against a wall, the sofa's cushions were ripped and thrown, the tables were on their sides, the floor was covered in books, papers and broken photographs. The kitchen was a mess too, the bathroom was covered in things from the small closet there, the bathtub's curtain thrown on the floor. Chloe's bedroom was an absolute mess too, the mattress was ripped and Beca accidentally stepped on a broken photograph of Chloe's father. Beca felt rage built inside of her.

"The embassy changed the door." Aubrey said as they tried to find something important on the mess "The kidnappers had broken it."

"At least Chloe didn't left without a fight." Jesse commented contemplating a small bloodstain on the wall.

"Had we had Chloe's power… we would've known she was in trouble." Beca rubbed her watery eyes recovering some archeology papers "Where are you Chloe?"


	8. Chapter 8

_I'm still updating once per week, between multiple reasons one is that University and life have my memory in everything but updating, so I'm just setting Fridays as the updating day for now until I can manage more often stuff, since Friday is my day of being most relaxed. Also, great amount of reviews always pushes me to work harder and better, of course._

 _Thanks Mila and all the reviewers, and thank you all for the support. I'd like to give a special shout out to_ _ **wms5012**_ _who has been willingly doing edits for all my bechloe fics, so you can get an idea on how the characters are. The edits are quite impressed and you can find them all on her tumblr, called the same way. We would both appreciate it a lot if you guys could see them and, if you have tumblr, reblog._

 _This is a very exciting chapter, one of my favorites so far._

 **Chapter 8: Finding Chloe Beale.**

February arrived too soon for Beca's liking. As every day for quite some days already, she, Jesse and Aubrey sat in Chloe's living room. They had organized the whole house again, and recovered the few documents from Chloe's investigation that hadn't been stolen, and found out Chloe had been trying to find the pillar of Ashoka that had been stolen, but they hadn't much luck figuring out where the real one could be. They had gone with other archeologists to the fake one and proved it was fake, so know there were a whole lot of people, including the government of India, looking for Chloe and for the right column.

"The true pillar should only have edicts." Jesse explained them "And nothing else. But since it was stolen so long ago nobody realized, maybe it was stolen because it had more important things than edicts. And since it always is about money, I'd say it has engraved the clues to some kind of treasure or something. But whoever stole it must be dead by now, so I'd say who kidnapped Chloe were people trying to find the real one too. And they need Chloe for that, so they'll keep her alive."

"Until they stop needing her." Aubrey added, and they looked at each other in silence.

They were interrupted by the ring of a doorbell. Beca went there and looked through the brand new peephole before opening the door.

"Any news?" Beca asked. It was Tanner, an ex soldier that now worked for National Security and had been sent to be the head of a small team to find Chloe.

"Yes." Tanner sat on the sofa "We believe Ms. Beale has been kidnapped by a terrorist group very popular here in India. Several governments have been after them for years, but haven't been able to catch them yet. The Army will be joining our forces in hopes we can use this opportunity to catch them."

"What about Chloe?" Aubrey asked "She's still the priority, right? I mean, it sounds like now all it matters is catching the terrorists, regardless of Chloe's life."

Tanner seemed uncomfortable and caressed his beard.

"We'll do all we can to rescue her alive, but if things get too complicated…" he shrugged "It's Government's orders. For them, Ms. Snow it's just an archeologist."

Beca shook her head in disbelief, arms crossed over her chest.

"The good news is that the Army has a slight idea of where they are. They used an abandoned military bunker in the past, located in the Thar's desert." Tanner continued.

"What's the plan." Beca said standing next to him.

"We can't overfly it much or they'll suspect, and we cannot get very close by walking because the US Air Force has seen they seem to have a militia around it, hidden between the dunes with camouflage attire." Tanner informed.

"So there's only one way. From inside." Jesse said, and Tanner nodded slowly.

"How?" Aubrey asked.

"Somebody would have to get inside with a hidden locator and protect Ms. Beale while giving the Army their exact location. The army will get in, kill the bastards and get Ms. Beale and company out. But it will have to be someone will military experience, unharmed, intelligent, that doesn't mind risking their life for Ms. Snow… probably someone from our special team, we'll do the selection tomorrow at the very last."

"I will. I'll get in there." Beca said.

"Sergeant, no offense but with your brain damage…"

"My training is still there." Beca cut him off "It will come all on its own. Any of your guys will do it with more passion and desire than I will, they won't work as hard as I will to get Chloe out of there." Beca added "I'm clever and I know the zone even if I don't remember it, the information is there. I can manage to sneak Chloe out of the dangerous zone so your guys can get in."

"The locator is in your panties, newest technology." It was at night. They had planned that at night it would be less warm, so more comfortable and easy to have success, and they would expect the attack less. Sergeant Major Stephanie Sanders was explaining Beca, already ready for the trip, the operation "Get in, find your friend, we'll get in ten minutes after you. By then, you better have found a safe spot or more protected one with your friend, so they don't kill her first."

"Understood." Beca nodded.

An hour later, after having spent hours studying the map of the desert and the zone of the bunker by heart, Beca got ready to do the best acting of her life. Of course, she could get killed before even reaching the bunker, but she was hopeful she wouldn't. Then, she heard a trigger, right when she was spotting the half buried bunker not too far away in the darkness of the night. She only had a flashlight and a canteen.

"On your knees." She was told in Urdu, but she understood and knelt on the sand with her hands behind her head, leaving the flashlight still on over the sand.

"I'm just a tourist." She said in English "My camel died and I've walked for hours trying to find somewhere to spend the night safe. Please, I'm… I'm not even armed." She heard a laugh behind her.

"Sure, I know where you can spend the night. Keep walking." It was a manly voice that made Beca's hair from behind her neck raise. Soon, he had escorted Beca towards the building. Beca then saw hidden under the bunker was an underground cave, and the man pushed her there. She found herself in a small 'room' illuminated by candles. He exchanged a few words with the many men that were there, dressed with dark clothes and filled with all kinds of guns. Beca gulped and then the man palmed her _everywhere_ to make sure she was unarmed, took her canteen, and then took her by the back of her t-shirt and threw her inside of a deeper part of the cave, that was separated by the rest with a room divider, and that was how Beca found herself falling on her knees on a much smaller and darker underground 'room'. Beca frowned and stood up, looking around. She had less than eight minutes now.

"Chlo?" she whispered "Chlo?" she saw a lump on the ground and ran towards it "Chloe!" she hissed.

She knelt beside Chloe's body, that lied in a fetal posture on the ground.

"Becs?" Chloe cleared her throat and sat up. It was so dark they couldn't even see each other, so Chloe took Beca's face between her hands "Rebeca?" Beca grinned.

"Hi." Beca breathed out reaching her hands to hold Chloe's face between her hands and pressed their foreheads together. Chloe sobbed and Beca giggled "Hi."

"Hi." Chloe then hugged her tightly "Oh my God Beca what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Beca whispered "Rescue you, silly. We have to be fast, can you run?"

"Yes." Chloe nodded and they stood up, holding hands.

"Are you okay?" Beca asked.

"Yes." Chloe replied again "They wanted me alive so I could guide them to the Ashoka pillar, but Beca, I never found out where it is. It was lost centuries ago."

"Don't worry, we'll gonna go home safe and sleep this trauma off." Beca kissed her forehead and grabbed her hand tightly "In less than five minutes, this is gonna fill with soldiers and shootings, we need to find a safe spot Chloe."

"Our safest choice is getting out." Chloe said and sighed.

"How?" Beca asked.

"Follow me." Chloe grabbed her hand and headed to the other room, where all the men stopped talking suddenly and looked at her. At the light of that room, Beca saw Chloe had an ugly cut on her cheek and another on one arm, judging by the blood on her sweater. The bags under her eyes were deeper and her lips were rather dry. Chloe spoke with the men in Hindu, and they threw a bucket towards her "We're going to gather some water." Chloe explained "They love not having to do a thing." She said in a whisper to Beca.

Again, they were escorted outside, and started walking illuminated by a flashlight held by the man. Chloe explained Beca there was a well around ten minutes away from the bunker.

"Did you find my dad?" Chloe whispered.

"No." Beca lied, decided it wasn't the moment "But I will soon, I promise."

"What's gonna happen now?" Chloe asked. But before Beca could answer, they heard helicopters over their heads. Beca was quick; she grabbed the bucket and right when the man was about to shot them, she hit his arms as hard as she could, and then quickly his head. Beca grabbed the gun from the man, and hit him again on the forehead with the back of the submachine gun, knocking him unconscious. They heard shootings and yelling and looked back, seeing a helicopter was shooting the terrorists, who were shooting back.

"Quickly!" Beca looked at Chloe "Take the flashlight and let's run!" The two women ran to hide lying on their backs on a dune. "Use the flashlight to alert the helicopters. They're US Army." Chloe nodded and moved the flashlight out.

"Sergeant!" a couple soldiers came running shortly after "Let's go, let's put you two into one of the helicopters." Beca nodded and grabbed Chloe's hand as they ran. Around thirty meters behind around fifty terrorists fought the soldiers, and the rescue helicopter was parked not too far away. They ran, and one of the soldiers stopped to fight the few terrorist who tried to reach them "Keep going!"

A soldier helped Chloe get into the helicopter and Beca was about to jump in right behind her, so Chloe turned around to extend her hand towards her and help her up, since the helicopter was tall and there was at least the distance of a three steps to jump to get in. Beca was about to grab her hand when she heard buzzing and then she stared at Chloe, both their eyes widened in terror. Chloe looked down and saw blood coming from her chest, right above her left breast.

"Chloe!" Beca yelled, jumping into the helicopter. A soldier had grabbed Chloe right before her knees gave up, and had laid her on the floor of the helicopter. The doors closed behind Beca.

"Ms. Snow has been shot!" One of the five soldiers that accompanied them shouted to the pilot "Let's get the hell away from here!"

"Chlo." Beca fell on her knees next to Chloe, who was trying to breathe, making strangled sounds. A soldier used a military blanket from the many that were on the seats to make pressure on the wound and Beca took Chloe's face between her hands "Hang on baby, hang on. You're gonna be fine. I promise, it's all gonna be alright."

"Bec…" Chloe looked like a fish out of the water, trying so desperately to breathe "M… da…"

"Don't worry about your father sweetheart." Beca smiled at her "Don't worry about anything okay? I'm here."

"Bec…" Chloe grabbed the neck of Beca's jacket in desperation.

"Sh… try to breathe. Just try, you have a perfectly good lung baby, use it, don't panic. You can do this." Chloe nodded and tried to breathe again, coughing a little. Beca kept a hand against her cheek and with the other she took the hand Chloe had on the neck of her jacket and pressed the back of Chloe's hand against her lips for a few seconds "You don't die on me, alright? Or you'll be the chicken who couldn't with a little bullet!" Chloe chuckled for a second before her eyes shot close in pain "Sh… sorry. Look at me Chlo. Just look at me and forget the rest. I'll take care of you. You're gonna be okay." Chloe looked at her "And we're gonna go back to America. You can live with me, and Jesse and Aubrey too if they want. It'll be like _Friends_ or _How I met your mother,_ we'll have crazy fun together!" Beca tried to distract her "Hell, you're gonna love my little garden, we can plant things there when the snow goes away. We can paint your room the color you want. Pink? Would you like pink?" Chloe smiled a little "Or blue. The color you want. And we'll put all kinds of archeological stuff, I'll buy you all kinds of freaky stuff. And we'll eat pizza every day, real pizza not like that crap they serve in India." A tear fell down Chloe's eye and she started coughing until she spit some blood.

Beca gasped frowning, and helped Chloe get it out. Then she lied beside her, on her side, her eyes fixed in Chloe's, the back of a hand against Chloe's cheek and her other hand intertwining fingers with Chloe.

"T… risty…" Chloe whispered.

"Thirsty? You're thirsty?" Chloe nodded and a soldier handed Beca a bottle of water. Beca helped Chloe drink some.

"We'll be in New Delhi's hospital in ten minutes." The pilot yelled back.

"You heard that Chloe?" Beca smiled at the redhead "You're gonna be fine. We're almost there. Can you hang in there for me?" Chloe nodded, getting paler by the second. Beca felt her head pounding and her heart beating painfully fast, the anxiety of the possibility of losing Chloe taking the best of her "It's gonna be so cool Chloe. I'll make pancakes every day, and maybe we can visit your family in Colorado, uh? I've never been to Colorado, is it pretty? I bet it is. It's where they make the Beales after all." Suddenly, Chloe's eyelids fell and the hand Beca was grabbing relaxed. Beca felt her own tears in her eyes as she pressed her lips against Chloe's forehead "Hang on please. Please Chlo, please don't die. I can't go on without my best friend." The minutes seemed hours until they finally reached the hospital.


	9. Chapter 9

_So today I bring you guys something new! Since many times you ask me stuff in reviews that I can't answer until next chapter if they are anons, I've decided to create my own ask account, where I accept prompts, questions, suggestions, commentaries, and all kinds of things you guys want to tell me._ _ **In ASK I'm /JULESINNEVERLAND**_ _(you don't have to register) and you can also find me in_ _ **TUMBLR in JUSTAPOINTINTHEBECHLOE**_ _and send me messages, and see all the updates and commentaries about my fics, aswell as all kinds of bechloe, pitch perfect, and sendrick content I find, and suggest prompts._

 _I adore this chapter. Also, shout out to Jake for still being in contact with me, to Mila for entertaining me, helping me, being an awesome friend, and for all you do. And last but not for that less important, another shout out to my favorite girl in the world, the one who owns my heart, and who day after day inspires me to be the best version of myself, helps me in ways nobody can, and does so much for me I can't even express it. Thanks to you my life has some more sense, my laughs are something frequent, my days shine brighter, and my life values more to me. I hope I'm at least as good to you as you are to me._

 _And of course, thanks to all those reviews and buddies out there who make sure to bring so much into my life, my stories, and who stand by me so much I do remember many of their names. If I had more time today, I would put an entire list mentioning all the names of you I remember, but really need to get this chapter out right now or you won't have it until Sunday night_ _I LOVE YOU ALL!_

 _ **Chapter 9: Crawling back to you.**_

Beijing was a big city, the biggest Beca remembered seeing. After three days in New Delhi in the ICU fighting for her life, Chloe had been moved to a hospital in Beijing, paid by the US Government, to make sure she received better medical attention. Beca, Aubrey and Jesse packed all their stuff and Chloe's stuff, now willing to ever step back in India, and followed Chloe a day later, staying in a hotel in Beijing. They sent all that wasn't useful, including Chloe's apartment and Jesse and Aubrey's apartment, and it was impressively quick thanks to a great organization. They had to carry too many things for their liking, all of their lives except for Beca, but at the end, the three friends were happily satisfied as, a week after rescuing Chloe, they entered the room where Chloe was still recovering. They were in the ICU and it had been ten days since Chloe was shot. Chloe was mostly in a state between deep asleep and slightly awake, she had a broken rib and a couple holes in her left lung, made by the bullet and the rib, that had punctured it, and her heart had been saved by little.

"You can all come to my place, find a job there." Beca said as they sat around Chloe's bed. Beca found Chloe's hand quickly and stroked her hand smiling at the sleeping, pale redhead "Or I can sell my place and we can all move somewhere better." They had been talking about what they were gonna do back in the States for a while and now they fell in silence staring at the redhead. Or at least Beca was staring. Jesse and Aubrey were staring at her smirking and whispering things.

"Somebody's babbling over our favorite redhead." Jesse commented. Beca turned around and looked at them.

"What?" Beca asked confused.

"Come on…" Aubrey leaned over Chloe to be closer to Beca "You have feelings for Chlo."

"Of course." Beca shrugged "She's my best friend, the only one I've had since I can remember beside you guys, she saved my life, took care of me, let me stay with her for as long as I wished, let me sleep on her comfortable bed, cooked for me, and was the best thing I've ever had. Of course I have feeling for her, how couldn't I?"

"So it's just… friendship, sisterhood?" Jesse inquired. Beca frowned. She had never thought about that. Was she a lesbian? She didn't know. She didn't remember being on a relationship.

"Yes." Beca replied "Gosh guys, just drop it. She's my friend, that's all…"

"Hmp…" the three friends stared at Chloe all serious and quiet.

Chloe's eyelids squeezed and then opened a little, closed, and opened a bit more than the time before, letting a long breath out and a slight frown accompanied by a little grunt. Beca smiled and stroke her forehead.

"Hi." Beca whispered very tenderly "We have to stop meeting as patient and caretaker." Beca joked with a smirk. Chloe curved her lips forming a tiny smile "How are you feeling?"

"Crap." Chloe whispered weakly.

"Do you want some water or anything?" Aubrey asked rubbing Chloe's arm kindly.

"No, thanks." Chloe replied "Hurts." Aubrey checked the morphine bags that were in a stick, connected to the IV that went into Chloe's arm.

"Well this isn't empty and augmenting the dose wouldn't be good Chlo, but why don't you try to sleep it off a little? Unless it's hurting too much" Aubrey added with a warning look.

"It's not so bad…" Chloe replied closing her eyes a little, so they were slightly open "Where am I?"

"Beijing." Beca replied "They had better hospitals." Chloe nodded slowly "Chlo honey, we sold your apartment and Jesse and Aubrey sold theirs too, all of your things and their things are packed and in our hotel, I guarantee you we left nothing in your apartment to make sure you didn't miss anything, like nothing at all except for the big furniture, that is. We found every hidden spot and got all your things out of there." Beca added quickly seeing alert in Chloe's eyes for a moment, and the redhead relaxed again.

"Why?" Chlo asked "I liked my sofa." She joked weakly with a little smirk and Beca smiled. If she was joking, that was good.

"I know it's not the best time to think about it, but Jesse, Aubrey and I have been talking, and we thought that it was time for all of us to get back to America, once you get released from the hospital. We can all stay at my place, is big enough, and the money from the apartments has been generous, we'll manage." Beca explained "You don't have to worry about money, I have enough at home. And I'll find a job soon, too, and any hospital in America would be lucky to have Aubrey, and Jesse can find something too, and between all of us you'll be good take care of, right?" Aubrey smiled at Chloe, who looked thoughtful for a moment before she nodded.

"Okay." Chloe whispered.

"Okay." Beca kissed her forehead "You sleep beauty, we'll be right here."

It took another four days for Chloe to start making actual progress instead of just not getting worse. Aubrey and Jesse had gone to the hotel for a bit and Beca was with Chloe helping her as the redhead blew through a plastic tube that connected to a plastic thing with three little balls that Chloe had to elevate in the air inside the thing by breathing strong into the tube. That was used as to strengthen her lungs.

"No more please." Chloe said after the last one, leaning against Beca, who had sat beside her on the bed to support Chloe while the redhead sat to use the plastic thing. Beca smiled and nodded, leaving the object on the bedside table and putting her arms around Chloe, kissing her forehead "Bec?" Chloe said after a while in silence.

"Yes sweetheart?" Beca asked kindly with her cheek against Chloe's forehead as the ginger leant against her chest.

"When can we go? I wanna go now. Home."

"Just a few days more." Beca said kindly "The doctor said you could go in a couple days. We can wait another couple days with you in the hotel with us, and then we can leave."

"To Nevada." Chloe breathed out with a little smile.

"To Nevada." Beca smirked "Although you and I will be flying to Denver and Jesse and Aubrey will carry our things to Nevada because they're awesome, I'll give them the keys of the house and we'll join them a few days later."

"We're going to Denver?" Chloe's eyes illuminated and she sat up, not enough to remove Beca's arms from around her body, but enough to stare at the brunette with bright watery eyes. Beca grinned and nodded "I thought you didn't find my father yet."

"I know, but that doesn't mean you can't visit the rest of the family, right?" Chloe grinned and they stared at each other.

They stared at each other with their faces mere inches apart from each other, and Beca realized Chloe's eyes were so blue it was almost blinding, and when those blue eyes suddenly fixed on Beca's lips, her stomach flipped but she didn't pull apart, instead she found herself staring at Chloe's lips too and leaning closer. Beca could almost feel Chloe's breath, but then, a nurse entered into the room and they pulled suddenly apart.

Back in Denver, they arrived at night and by the time Beca had put all their luggage aside, helped Chloe change into her pajamas, and change herself, Chloe was already sound asleep on her bed. Since Chloe needed space to sleep properly, Beca had booked a room with two individual beds, and now she was walking and sitting on the side of Chloe's bed. She contemplated the redhead and tucked her better, observing her sleep. Beca couldn't understand what the hell had happened that day at the hospital when they had gotten so close, had they been about to kiss? But why? Or maybe it wasn't that. Because she wasn't a lesbian and Chloe wasn't either, that was for sure…

Chloe looked so tired and pale and now she was frowning a little in her sleep, and since Beca knew the redhead hadn't been sleeping so well, Beca sat for a while just making circles on the back of her hands, that were under Chloe's chin, to relax her until she looked to be having more fun, and afterwards, she went to her own bed and looked at Chloe. She sighed and smiled. No, she wasn't in love. She was thankful she had a best friend like Chloe still alive and there with her.

"Good night red." Beca smiled a bit and turned the lamp light off. She woke up hours later when room service brought breakfast to open the door, and when she came back with the breakfast, she smiled seeing Chloe was still asleep. Beca left the food on the table and went to wake Chloe up "Sweetheart, time to wake up little red." Beca sang slapping Chloe's hip tenderly. Chloe opened her eyes a little and made a noise of discomfort putting a hand over her face, which made Beca chuckle "If you eat well, I'll take you to the cemetery." That made Chloe get into action in a second. "How did you sleep?" Beca asked helping her sit up and putting the tray with the breakfast on Chloe's lap on the bed. Beca sat in front of Chloe crossing her legs, put the tray on her own lap and started cutting Chloe's pancakes as well as hers.

"Better." Chloe replied "Uh, my chest hurts again."

"It's okay, eat a bit and you can take your painkillers. Is never good to take meds with an empty stomach, remember?" Chloe nodded.

"I don't know if I wanna go to the cemetery though." Chloe said after a while, making Beca frown.

"Why?" Beca asked.

"I just got a bullet pulled out of my lung, Beca. I don't feel so well." Chloe shrugged, and Beca frowned even more, but in concern.

"Should we find a doctor?" Beca asked.

"No silly, I don't mean like I'm feeling worse, just… I don't know if I want to feel more things inside." Chloe explained.

"Chlo…" Beca moved the now empty tray to her bed and sat beside Chloe putting one of Chloe's hands on her lap and squeezing it "I know it's gonna be crazy hard and difficult and stuff and that it's not the right time. But we can't stay here for too long because you need to be in a warm, comforting house and stuff, we can't stay at your house because we don't know how long it has been since your father left it and what kind of things would we find there, and if we go now you'll be feeling bad for not coming and torturing yourself because you want to come but planes aren't the best thing for you to be going and coming all the time. You haven't visited in years… you need this."

"I know…" Chloe looked at her with watery begging eyes, and Beca moved closer "Just… what if I felt so much… I'll explode?"

"I will be right beside you. You won't explode. You'll canalize. With me." Beca smiled at her tenderly. Chloe smiled and then nodded.

"Let's go."

Beca felt herself about to throw up as she took Chloe's hand and squeezed it as they walked into the cemetery. It wasn't a big cemetery but the closer they got to the grave, the more Beca wanted to run away, she even started thinking excuses why Chloe shouldn't be seeing that in that day. Soon they reached the grave, and Chloe left the flowers they had brought next to it before looking up at the grave, frowning slightly. Beca observed her nervously. First, she saw Chloe be puzzled, then she saw Chloe put two and two together, and her eyes got wet at her expression turned into shock and she knelt in front of the grave shaking her head slightly. Her eyes then moved to Beca, who let herself fall on her knees beside the grave and Chloe, facing Chloe, and Chloe shook her head again slowly looking at her, a tear falling from her eye.

The brunette felt her soul break into little pieces and her own eyes get glassy, as she took Chloe's hands between her own, on her lap. She took a deep, long breath, before speaking calmly.

"It happened December 27th. Your father left to work a day like any other, and while he was working, his heart stopped suddenly. They haven't been able to determine the exact causes." Beca explained "Some mistakes were made and you weren't contacted, nobody was, apparently they couldn't or didn't know or who knows right? You didn't have the money to come anyway so maybe it was for the best… they figured he would've wanted to be buried with his family so that's where he is. There was nothing anybody could've done to help him, Chloe." Chloe stared at her for a moment, her eyes wet and glassy "He left fast and probably didn't feel it. I tried to call you Chlo, but you had been kidnapped, you couldn't have known… I flew to find you and Aubrey and Jesse told me you had disappeared, so we looked for you. I knew it wasn't the right time when we were there… and I knew it absolutely wasn't while you were in the hospital. Forgive me I made you wait so long."

Chloe stared back at the stone, reading the names again hoping to be wrong, to have read wrong, and she let a long shaking sigh go. Beca sat with her front against Chloe's side and put a hand on Chloe's back. Soon, the redhead was leaning against her chest, and Beca's arms hugged her closely. Then Chloe started sobbing softly.

They didn't wait much more to go to Nevada. Beca kept an arm around Chloe's arm as they stumbled into the house, a few days later. Chloe hadn't said much since she found out her father had died, but for Beca it was okay.

"We're here!" Beca yelled as they entered the house "Stop having sex and help with the luggage guys." Jesse and Aubrey quickly appeared running downstairs and grinned. Beca had texted them already to let them know Chloe knew, and soon Chloe was between Aubrey's arms, and the blonde hugged her back, tightly. Jesse helped Beca bring the luggage upstairs and then came downstairs to join Chloe and Aubrey in the living room while Beca put everything back in its place and organized everything upstairs.

After a while, Beca came downstairs again, feeling her head pounding again, and stood by the doorframe looking into the living room. Jesse sat on the sofa with an arm over the back of it, passing right behind Aubrey's head as the blonde sat beside him, with Chloe's head on her lap while the girl's body rested on the sofa. They seemed to be making some small talk, and Beca was happy about it.

"Guys, I'm gonna go take a nap for a bit before a therapist appointment I'm supposed to go to later but I'll be back for dinner and in the meantime, you can do whatever you want, my house is your house, you have a set of keys, so…" she shrugged.

"Good, enjoy your nap." Jesse curved his lips into a smile and Beca nodded smiling a little bit too.

"Oh and… you don't have to cook. I mean, I'll be in time to make dinner, or we can order, or go somewhere… so… don't worry about cooking or anything. Have fun, that would be cool. Okay, see you in a bit."

Beca ran upstairs and practically fell on her bed, dragging herself to one side and snuggling in a fetal position. She set an alarm on her phone and shortly after and despite her throbbing headache, she fell asleep.

 _Her cheek hurt. It hurt really bad. She stared at her hands, sobs wrecking her body as she sat with her back against the door, her ass on the floor as she heard someone punching the door, her hands covered in blood after having been pressed against her cheek._

 _"Open the door!" a woman was yelling while she sobbed "Drag your little ass here, you whore! Open the damn door!"_

Beca woke up breathing heavily, startled. Next to her, Chloe was deep asleep, so Beca calmed herself down and since her alarm was about to sound, she erased it and kissed Chloe's forehead before going away.

"Okay, see you later!" Beca yelled at Jesse and Aubrey, who were snuggled kissing on the sofa, and left the house.

She came back exhausted from her short appointment. It had consisted mostly of a presentation and an introduction, Beca had told them all that she remembered, and that was it. She sighed arriving home and smiled smelling great food.

"Guys, I told you I could cook…" Beca started walking into the kitchen, hearing laughs. She suddenly stopped herself. Her friends were sitting around the kitchen island, but they weren't alone. A skinny woman in her early fifties sat with them. She had dark blue eyes that Beca had seen before, and she was showing her friends what looked like a photo album. Beca's heart missed a beat as she stood by the kitchen door, her arms falling loosely at her sides, a cautious and somewhat fierce expression on her face as she looked at the woman "What are you doing here." Beca said in a very unwelcoming tone. Her friends looked at her cautiously, but Beca only had words for the woman that she somehow knew who was perfectly well, and the woman looked back at her.

The woman stood up but didn't move further. She looked happy to see her, but she was also containing, like if she was afraid of Beca.

"I… I thought you lost your memory." The woman whispered. Beca felt anger rising inside of her. Somehow, she knew. She knew the woman.

"Get the hell out of my house and don't you dare coming back. Ever." Beca snapped "You have a minute. I'm gonna go change." She added changing completely the tone for a much kinder one accompanied with a little smile as she looked at her friends.


	10. Chapter 10

_Quick reminder you can_ _ **ASK I'm /JULESINNEVERLAND**_ _(you don't have to register) and you can also find me in_ _ **TUMBLR in JUSTAPOINTINTHEBECHLOE**_ _and send me messages, and see all the updates and commentaries about my fics, aswell as all kinds of bechloe, pitch perfect, and sendrick content I find, and suggest prompts._

 _Hey everybody! How are you all doing? The shoutout of the week goes to xcombixgirl because she's the most fierce, loyal reviewer I've ever come across together with others, truth been said, and I try to give you all attention so this week is for her. Thanks girl! And to everybody even if I don't specially mention you, thanks for all the support given. I really love this chapter and I'm not answering to reviews this time because you guys just NEED to see this gahahahahah_

 **Chapter 10: Truth hurts.**

Beca stormed upstairs and breathed deeply as she changed into much comfier clothes before going downstairs again. For her surprise, the woman had sat again and was chatting quietly with her friends in a sympathetic tone.

"Didn't I make myself clear?" Beca growled with a voice she didn't know she had "I have guns in this house and I still have a license to use them, I won't doubt, you know?"

"Come on Rebeca, just give me a chance…" the woman smiled kindly at her "Plus, you wouldn't shoot your mommy, wouldn't you?"

"Don't you dare call yourself my mother, Ruth!" Beca yelled suddenly and Aubrey and Jesse stared at each other with surprised faces, while Chloe had jumped startled "I am not your daughter! I have no parents, and that's how I want it to be." Beca snapped roughly. The woman in question, Ruth, nodded slowly in a sad way and stood up "Get out or I'll call the police, I'm not joking."

"But Beca… I haven't seen you in nine years…" Ruth said with watery eyes. Chloe, Jesse and Aubrey observed patiently.

"And why was that, Ruth? Why did I leave? You think I don't know?" Beca yelled at her.

"Beca sweetie, calm down…" Chloe intervened a bit "She's your mother, she just wants to talk to you for a bit…"

"You don't know what she did to me Chloe." Beca whispered glaring at Ruth. She wouldn't yell at Chloe "You didn't tell them, didn't you, coward? You came here playing the paper of the confused mother who has no idea why her daughter ran away from home, you probably what, started showing pictures, sharing stories like you adored me? And blaming Jordan for me leaving. You probably sold my friends the image of you being the super amazing mother who searches the whole world for her girl to help her and welcome her back home, didn't you?" Ruth's face said it all. Beca sighed "I knew it. Make both of us a favor and disappear from my life Ruth."

"I've gotten better Beca. What I did to you, I was drunk, I was drugged, I wasn't me and wasn't thinking!" Ruth started to get desperate "But I love you, and I've hated myself so bad all these years for what I did, I've wanted to apologize to you so many times! Becs honey, you have to believe me, no one is more sorry than I am… Please, couldn't we forget and move on? Start over, like a family?"

Beca seemed to be reaching the top of her anger and stared angrily in disbelief for a few seconds before grabbing her sweater and throwing it to the floor, standing in her bra and pants in front of her mother, angrily.

"Look at me!" Beca yelled at her mother, making her jump and her voice reverberate in the whole room "I'm a Sergeant! And half my scars, you made them! Turning off your cigarettes against my skin!" Beca pointed to her right arm, that had some darker spots of skin from old burns "cutting me!" she pointed to lines on her belly "How many times have you slapped me, _mom_?" she growled, angrier by the second. Her three friends exchanged concerned glances and Ruth stepped back as Beca stepped forward "How many times have you punched me and used me like the sack to let go your anger? how many times did you call me whore, slut, piece of shit, worthless, useless, unloved, unwanted, hated…?" Beca was doing a big effort not to slap the woman across the face, but finally she ended up exploding and slapping Ruth hard on the cheek "GO TO HELL, BURN, AND NEVER COME BACK!" Beca yelled with all her lungs.

Her head was pounding like crazy and she took her t-shirt and stormed out, running upstairs. She couldn't take more. The room was spinning and before she knew it, she was kneeling in front of the toilet emptying her stomach. She shouldn't have done so much effort, she knew for a person that had had a big concussion, the last few weeks had been a nightmare, and what she just did wasn't much better. She felt cold and sweaty, and she was shaking, although she couldn't tell if that was from rage or from being sick. Beca locked the door with trembling hands and slumped to get the hands towel, soaked it with cold water, and pressed it against her face breathing deeply as she sat on the floor with her back against the wall and focused on her breathing for a while. She heard the main door downstairs close and soon after, she heard steps by the stairs.

Beca didn't have to wait much to hear a soft knocking against the bathroom's door.

"Beca, Ruth left. Is everything alright honey? Can we do anything for you?" Aubrey asked. Beca thought for a few seconds and then nodded and stood up opening the door. In front of her were her three concerned friends.

"I'm okay, I just… I've been overworking my brain lately, I guess." She put her t-shirt, that she had thrown on the floor, back on, and stepped out of the bathroom "I'm gonna find my painkillers."

"I'll go." Chloe offered "Why don't you just go to bed and rest a bit?"

"We'll keep an eye on the meal and call when it's ready." Aubrey said. Beca nodded and walked to her bedroom.

Beca lied on a side of her bed in a fetal position and closed her eyes, sighing as she tried to focus in something else but the throbbing pain she was feeling. Chloe, however, didn't take long to come with Beca's painkillers and a glass of water to help her swallow. Beca did and then lied back on the bed.

"Thanks Chlo." She whispered closing her eyes.

"You're welcome." Chloe replied with her soft, tender voice leaving the glass on the bedside table and climbing on the bed behind Beca, spooning with an arm over Beca, intertwining their fingers. "So… my parents are dead. And your parents are alive and the worst of them all." Beca nodded and moved to lie against her back, moving her face to look at Chloe. Beca's hands were on her belly, one of them intertwined with one of Chloe's.

"We are two lucky women." Beca joked sarcastically and Chloe chuckled.

"Actually, yes." Beca stared at her intently, sinking in her blue eyes "We could be alone but we have each other. And Aubrey and Jesse."

Beca stared in silence, thoughtful, and Chloe ran her thumb around the back of Beca's hand softly.

"I'm sorry about your father." Beca said and Chloe nodded slowly and sighed.

"I know. I'm sorry about your parents being assholes. How long have you know?" Chloe asked.

"I think I started suspecting it with the first dreams or when I first went to take a bath and saw my scars, and my tattoos… I started thinking of who I am… and I realized I couldn't come from the same place you did." Beca explained "Then I started having specific dreams of being hit, and put two and two together."

Beca had found out she had several tattoos. She had a feather over her left hip along the verge of her pants, that as she looked in the Internet, meant freedom and air; she had a dara celtic knot tattoo that looked a bit like a tree on her left upper arm, she didn't know how she knew what it was but she remembered it somehow, and Internet said it meant power, destiny, wisdom, strength, endurance and leadership; then, she had an African symbol along the outer arch of her right foot called the owo foro adobe that meant persistence and prudence; and finally her last tattoo was the dwennimmen symbol of strength and humility that she had tattooed on the back of her neck. She somehow liked all of her tattoos, but also felt intrigued by them and knew their powerful meanings meant her life had been rough.

Chloe, on the other side, only had two tattoos. One was a little ladybug on her right forearm that she had told Beca it was her mom's favorite animal and she got it after her death. The other was the Hindi word for "strength" that she had on her left wrist.

"Beca…" Chloe bit her lip nervously, her faces so close they could feel each other's breaths "I know that woman hurt you in ways that are hard to even imagine, but she changed. She's not a drunk or a drug addict anymore Beca, and you know it in your heart. I know having her would make you so happy… and I want you to have that. Would you… I'm not saying you just forgive her, no. I'm just saying… would you at least listen to what she has to say?" Beca couldn't glare hard at the woman, she just looked down.

"Okay. I'll call her and ask her to come and tell me whatever tomorrow, but only because I know it would mean a lot to you." Beca whispered and Chloe smiled.

"Thanks. At least one of us will have a mother."

"Chlo…" Beca frowned in concern and Chloe curved her lips into a sad smile "You have a mother. She's just… her cell is off or out of range." She joked a bit, and Chloe chuckled and shook her head.

"You're such an asshole." Chloe joked playfully slapping her arm.

"You're beautiful." Beca said suddenly, and her ears felt too warm as Chloe stared at her "You look just like your mother. Except for your eyes. You have your father's eyes. It's crazy because… I never met your family, but I can see them in you." Chloe's eyes were getting glassy, but Beca decided to go on, now that she had started "I see your mother's beautiful smile and red hair, your brother's dimples, and your father's eyes. I see the kindness you picked from your parents, how you're always cleaning your hands and being hygienic because you're a doctor's daughter, how you're always looking everywhere in the car and being so focused you barely talk and forget to sing despite you do it all the time, because you don't want to end like your brother, the same way you're always trying not to get too sad, and to always find the comfort you need even if that includes getting too touchy because you're afraid not doing it costs you so much pain you end your life too. And maybe it's because you spend the biggest part of your life with your father, but he left so much in you. You're methodic, thorough, compassionate, passionate, intelligent, persistent… you're so many things… and I know a big part of who you are is because you were raised by amazing parents." Chloe sniffled soundly and nodded looking down and letting a tear fall. And then another. "And I'm so thankful you had them because… well, if you weren't you, I probably would be rotting in some drainage in Pakistan." Chloe smiled through the tears and let a sob out. Beca turned to her side to face Chloe and, putting a hand under her cheek and another over her wrist, she hugged her closer and tighter, pressing her forehead against hers as her thumb erased Chloe's tears and her other hand rested on her back.

Chloe sobbed for a while, and Beca just lied in silence, stroking and touching her, until they both fell asleep. Aubrey gently woke them up to tell them to go downstairs because dinner was ready, and after dinner, each went to their bed, Beca and Chloe sharing Beca's bed.

"Beca." Chloe whispered in the dark "Are you awake?" she put a hand on Beca's belly.

"Yes." Beca whispered opening her eyes "You okay?"

"Yes, sorry. It's just... I'm thinking about moving to my childhood house, be close to my family." Chloe said "When I get better, you know. But the University of Boston emailed me offering me a teaching spot, since I have a PhD in Archeology. It's very well paid and it seems like it could be fun, but I'd have to move to Boston. And I don't know what to do, because in Denver I haven't been able to find a job."

"If it wasn't about jobs and money, what would you do?" Beca asked.

"I don't know." Chloe shrugged "In one side, I really want to be in Colorado because my family is there and I don't want to sell my house. But I also can't be there because it's too many memories, and also, I've always wanted to live outside of my hometown, preferably near the beach, so I could go on the weekends and stuff… and I never really loved Denver, it was cool and fine but it's not the place I want to raise my family in. And I also don't want to be surrounded by the ghosts of my past even though I don't want to not be either. Does that make sense?"

"Yes." Beca replied and squeezed her hand over her belly "Look, Boston is an awesome city, Massachusetts is one of the best states there is, and it was the sea, and the time difference is not so big with the zero meridian so you can travel to Europe and not be so jetlagged, and it's close to New York City and Washington DC, or Florida, all cool, interesting places. Also, it may be a bit cold, but you'll have snow in the winter. And you have a great job waiting for you there, Chloe. So if I were you, I'll take it." Beca replied looking at Chloe, and smiled a little "After India, everything will seem closer to home. If that job is so well paid, you can go see your family often, sell that house that will cause you more pain than comfort, and fly like the bird you are. Like your father did, right? Boston is close to North Carolina too, so you can see your family. And Denver, you already know it. Go, see other places. Seeing more a stone, sitting more often over their remains… it won't help you. Starting over will. And you seem to have found the perfect opportunity."

"You're right." Chloe said after a small time of thoughtful silence "I should go to Boston. They told me I had to be there tops in June, for the meetings for the new scholar year, since I wouldn't start teaching until September. So I have time to pack up things and also recover some… I'll miss Denver and it will be weird to leave my home and all the memories… but I think you'll right. It's time for me to pass the page."

"Yeah. And you'll always carry them in your heart, Chlo." Beca smiled looking at her, although it hurt her to think she would be so far away.

"I don't want to be so far away from you either, though. Or Aubrey or Jesse, although maybe I can convince them to move close to me, maybe to Virginia or something. Great hospitals over there."

"I know… me neither. But hey, we'll have a great time when I help you pack things." Beca tried to be optimistic "I'll miss you all like crazy when you start finding your places."

"And you? Have you found your place here?" Chloe asked. Beca shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't even know my dream job. I just know I'm signing the papers to leave the Army next week." Beca sighed and Chloe rubbed a thumb against her belly.

"Come with me to Boston then." Chloe suggested.

"With you? To Boston?" Beca asked surprised, Chloe giggled.

"Yes? Sell everything and come. Jesse and Aubrey have each other. We don't have to be alone Becs. I don't want to. And this way, we won't miss each other." Chloe reasoned. Beca grinned.

"Yes. Let's go to Boston." Beca chuckled.

The night was filled with nightmares about posters on the street with her face offering an economic compensation to whoever found her, and others about being kicked to unconsciousness. However, the next day, as Beca promised, she invited her mother, Ruth, for tea in the afternoon to listen to her. The four friends sat together on one sofa and Ruth sat on the other, while Chloe held Beca's hand over her lap.

"So?" Beca inquired raising her eyebrows towards Ruth.

"Mm, yes… so… I've been completely clean from alcohol and any drugs, for seven years now." The mother explained "When you left I uh, at first I thought you'd come back. A weekend passed and I knew nothing about you. Then, a week passed. That's when I called your father and asked if by any chance you had gone there, and he went hysteric calling me a bad mother and stuff… hypocrite." Beca nodded "So I called police. They didn't take long to realize you had ran away because I was a mess, so they put special effort in finding you, and still nothing. I… you can't even imagine Beca, I've never been so scared in my life, thinking you were dead in some corner or something and it was all my fault…" Beca fixed her eyes on a spot on her mother's sofa "I think that's when I understood I really had sunk and I started going to rehab. It took several failed attempts, but at the end I got myself back in the train. I found a job as a teacher in some high school in San Francisco, where I still work, although I explained the principal I had just found the daughter I believed dead and she gave me some free weeks. I tried to get your father to help finding you but… well, maybe you remember how he is." Ruth nodded for herself "I've missed you so much Beca… I'm so sorry for everything I did to you and all the pain I caused you." Her eyes went glassy "I know I'm the worst mother, and you deserve so much better than me and I'm sorry you had to content with that but I promise I've changed. And I still want to be your mother."

There were a few seconds of silence that Beca interrupted.

"Who's Grandma Jude?" Beca asked, surprising them. Ruth nodded slowly with a bittersweet smile.

"You remember her, of course." She seemed happy about it "She's my mother, Jude Geraldine Fanning. Single surname, Snow. My family is from San Francisco. Your father's, from Seattle, like you. However, my mom moved close to us in 1990, a few months after you were born the previous year, because me being a teacher and your father an attorney, we needed some extra hands with you and your father's family, the Mitchells, were kind of really busy. Your paternal grandmother was dead already, your grandmother very, very old and sick, and my father had died a few months after you were born, barely had time to met you. So my mother was lonely and an amazing woman, and offered to come and help. And she was great. You two were together more than you were with anyone else and you really, really loved her." Ruth explained "When I started having problems, around the time you turned eight, she was the one who really took care of you. Your father… do you remember your father?"

"Not much." Beca reckoned.

"Of course." Ruth sighed "Jordan, he was never there, was part of the reason I started having problems. I also have genetic predisposition to rage problems, which you inherited but learnt to control much better than I ever did. We had economic trouble, your father was always working although when you were fourteen I found out he was having a double life and had a two year old with another woman, so he probably spent most of his 'working' time with his other family, the one he has always loved, took care of… he's still with them, now they have a big family of course." Beca nodded slowly, clenching her teeth, and Chloe squeezed her hand drawing patrons on the back of it with her thumb "So really, the only one who was always there for you was Grandma Jude. She taught you how to play the guitar and the piano, and how to sing, because she had the most beautiful voice. But she died in June 30th, 1999. You were ten and I was by then hitting you so much and she was who protected you the most since your father ignored you, and it broke your heart. I saw it, and I was also so hurt instead of making it easy, I made sure your life was pure hell. It always surprised me you didn't leave sooner and hung in there eight years more. I divorced your father the moment I found out he had a double life, took you and we went to San Francisco, where I enrolled you in a school you hate where kids bullied you for things I never bothered to learn and when I wanted, you had already graduated high school with honors and left that summer." Beca nodded daring to look at her. Ruth bit her lip nervously "How is it that you went from there to… an US Army Sergeant?"

"I only remember small bites." Beca replied "Luckily the Pentagon had investigated me when they found out I had amnesia, so they could tell me my life." Beca continued a bit reluctantly. She looked at Chloe's hands around her own, and decided to keep going "Somehow I reached Arizona. Somehow I bought a home and enlisted, I suspect because I had no money and jobs are crappy for a teenager that never stepped into college. And they give money, a bed and you even get to travel so…" She shrugged "I spent ten months in Iraq, eleven in Afghanistan, moved here when I had the money, got a driving license and a car, and left for Pakistan back in September. Came back a few weeks ago, left on a small trip, and came back again a couple days ago." Ruth nodded with a tiny smile "I have an uhm… medical leave so… I won't be deployed anymore."

"Can I ask… why is it that… gave you amnesia?" Ruth asked. Beca thought for a few seconds and then nodded.

"Got kidnapped the day before Christmas for a band of angry Pakistani soldiers. They tortured me and I got a concussion and some great brain damage among… other stuff. Chloe and Jesse here found me a few weeks later and saved my life. Aubrey is Chloe's best friend and Jesse's girlfriend and she's a doctor and helped lots so… now they get to stay here for as long as they want." Beca explained.

"Oh. Thanks guys." Ruth grinned looking at her friends, who formed a polite smile "Well, thanks for your time Beca." Ruth stood up "It's more than I could've ever expected."

"So" Beca said suddenly, thoughtful and leading with internal battles "let me see if I understand" she stood up "my father is some dude named Jordan that never even made the effort to be my father, that ignored me even if he knew you were abusing me, and basically got sick of us and made a better family he could love and for whom he probably is the best man in the world." Ruth nodded looking down "And you were a monster towards me for years…" Ruth nodded again.

"That's right." Ruth said.

"But you got back in place for me, you made an effort to find me, you spend years trying to reach me, you tried for me to want you back selling me letters to the Army and stuff, and you've come here more than once only to find me and be kicked out." Beca stood nervously in front of her, staring at her short mother. She was taller than Ruth, and Beca wasn't exactly a tall person "You haven't been my mother for eighteen years but, as far as I'm concerned… you've been or wanted and tried to be for the past nine years. You're the closest thing I know to a mother, and the closest thing I have to a consanguineous family." Ruth nodded staring at her.

"It's okay Beca. I just wanted to make sure you would be okay. I know you're better off without me, I'm just glad you're okay and with true friends. You never had friends, that I knew of at least."

"I may have forgotten more than half my life." Beca said "But you're the only person from my past, not counting the Army that has a duty towards me, that has tried to reach me. What I really mean to say…" she bit her lip nervously "is… thank you. Thank you, _mom_." Ruth stared at her daughter in disbelief for a few seconds, and then hugged her tightly, crying. Beca awkwardly threw her arms around her mother and then relaxed and squeezed her tightly as Ruth cried. Chloe sniffled smiling and Jesse and Aubrey smiled too.

"I'm so sorry Beca, oh my sweet little girl, my little angel, if it wasn't for you I would be nobody! You're… you're… I swear I won't disappoint you again Beca, never!" Ruth cried against Beca's shoulder.

"It's okay mom. I know, it's okay." Beca rubbed her back patiently.

"I love you so much Beca. I've always loved you, even if I wouldn't show it, but your father and other stuff had me so… so fucked up… but I won't fail you again, okay?" She stepped back holding Beca's face between her hands, squeezing her cheeks. Beca smiled awkwardly "We're gonna be a family again, and I'm gonna be the best mother…"

"Mom, it's okay." Beca rubbed her forearms to free her face "I… I kind of love you too. So now stop it, you're embarrassing me in front of my friends." Ruth laughed and hugged her tightly again.

The next day, Beca decided to invite her mom for lunch. She helped to prepare it for a while until she had to leave for a meeting she had with someone from the Army to end her association and all relations with them and be a veteran and civilian.

She, in consequence, came a bit late for lunch and her family was already sitting on the table starting to eat.

"Sorry for the delay, hi mom!" Beca yelled coming into the house and running into the living room leaving her keys on top of some furniture before joining the table "Traffic is a mess at this hour, sorry."

"So you're not Sergeant Mitchell anymore?" Ruth asked with a smile.

"No, only an unemployed." Beca replied.

"Welcome to the clan!" Jesse laughed.

"You know? I have savings screw working. I'm gonna live of not wasting a lot of money and not making more." Beca smirked joking around.

"Not a bad job." Aubrey commented with a smirk "Imagine it on your papers. Rebeca Mitchell. Job, loser." She joked, making them laugh.

"She'll focus on getting her skinny ass bigger." Chloe added with a smirk.

They were talking and laughing for a while with random topics. At one moment, Beca looked at her mother.

"Mom, where does Jordan live?" Beca asked.

"Seattle honey, I told you."

"I mean the exact address."

"Oh" Ruth looked surprised "are you gonna write him?" Chloe looked at Beca surprised.

"No" Beca replied "I wanna visit him. But not like to give him a hug and stuff… I want his family to know who he is. I wanna show him who I am and make him regret what he did to us."

"Honey…" Ruth smiled a bit "That's not going to be a good idea. Your head is bad, you shouldn't do those efforts and even if you could, you shouldn't remove waters. Is better if things stay how they are, each goes happily their way."

"But I can't let it go, mom, I'm a soldier, I don't let things go, I confront them with a gun." Beca shrugged nervously scratching her arm "What he did was unforgivable, things could've gotten real bad for us because of him. I won't let him forget and keep living happily just like that. And don't worry about my head, is not like I'm gonna do it anytime soon. I want a few calm days first."

"I'll email you the address." Ruth promised "I know I must have it somewhere." Beca nodded.

"Oh, before we forget." Jesse said "We talked with Chloe before, but you still don't know! Chloe told us a few days ago about her thoughts of moving to Boston, and Aubrey and I spoke to our families and Boston seems like a good plan, Aubrey actually has some family there and everything and the hospital there is good and Aubrey called and they are interested in her. And I called the University of Boston, to see if they needed someone else, and they also have a spot for me."

"What do you mean?" Beca frowned in curiosity.

"We're all moving to Boston!" the three friends yelled happily, and Beca smiled, nodding.

"That's so cool! We should start looking for places!" Beca said excitedly.

"Oh, you're moving?" Ruth asked.

"Yeah." Beca stared at Ruth a bit nervous not knowing how she would take it "I know it's kind of far from San Francisco but… I can go visit and stuff. It's just, Chloe got a great job offer, and she didn't want to go alone, and I didn't want to stay alone not remembering if I have friends here or anything, and since I'm unemployed I thought I would be great to go too."

"Oh, that's fantastic!" Ruth smiled "We went once to Boston when you were like six, I loved that place, is gorgeous. And now that you're moving, what do you think if I buy you this house? That way I'm a bit closer to you, less flight hours for the both of us. I'll sell my place in San Francisco, it's too small and I have a lot of savings so I can be a bit richer here. Plus I've had many offers for my place because it's well located."

"That… that would be awesome!" Beca grinned widely.

"Actually" Chloe intervened "Ruth, what do you say about buying my childhood house in Denver, Colorado? It's even closer to Boston" She asked, and Beca raised her eyebrows in surprise, so did Ruth making them look a lot like mother and daughter "Long story short" Chloe said awkwardly "My father passed away and my mother and brother died long ago so there's nobody to take care of our house in Denver, and I have to sell it and it's quite painful to say goodbye to it and leave it to just anybody. And it's a really big house with awesome gardens, and I promise you is a great neighbor and a great city, well located, close to everything, and you can change it and make it your home however you want. Is just… I would feel better knowing somebody trustful is taking care of it, and when I go to Denver to visit the cemetery I could maybe stay with you for a couple days? It would make me really happy if you bought it and I wouldn't ask more than four hundred thousand dollars, I swear."

Ruth seemed thoughtful for a moment and smiled a bit exchanging a look with Beca, who smiled and nodded back.

"Yeah, of course!" Ruth replied "I like Denver, lived there once before I met Beca's father and it was great." She smiled widely "Don't worry Chloe, I would very gladly buy your place and take care of it, and it'll be so cool because of course you can come all the time! If it's a special place for you I'm sure it'll be more than a great place for me. Only one question, nobody actually died there, right?" she asked serious. Chloe bit her lip.

"My mother killed herself in the bathroom but my father changed it completely, it's now the laundry room." Chloe replied nervously "And I swear my mother has never come from beyond or anything, no weird noises, nothing creepy has happened ever since, really."

Ruth smiled warmly at Chloe.

"Awesome!" Ruth said excitedly "Although…" she got serious and squeezed Chloe's hand over the table "I'm really sorry for what happened honey. I promise I'll take good care of your house, okay?"

"Thanks Ruth, it means a lot." Chloe replied with a tiny smile, and Beca smiled at them.


	11. Chapter 11

_Quick reminder you can_ _ **ASK I'm /JULESINNEVERLAND**_ _(you don't have to register) and you can also find me in_ _ **TUMBLR in JUSTAPOINTINTHEBECHLOE**_ _and send me messages, and see all the updates and commentaries about my fics, aswell as all kinds of bechloe, pitch perfect, and sendrick content I find, and suggest prompts._

 _This chapter can be a bit hard to read for people with bad sexual experiences, so careful ;S Also, I have an exam on Friday and also a few other things to take care of, so I don't know if the next chapters will be on Friday or Saturday. I would put them Thursday, but I have an exam on Friday so it's not a good idea to distract me with this ;)_

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 **Chapter 11: Body.**

Three weeks later, Beca, Ruth, Jesse and Aubrey went with Chloe to Denver to help the redhead pack up her family's life in her big family house that had been what she meant for home for her whole life. To say that was though and one of Beca's saddest experiences was an understanding. Aubrey took some boxes and went to the kitchen to pack up everything from the bathrooms, Ruth devoted herself to the dining room, Beca went to Michael, Chloe's brother bedroom, and Chloe went to her father's bedroom. Everyone decided to pack absolutely everything except for things that were going to be authentic trash, that wasn't much since Chloe and Roger, and afterwards Roger alone, had kept the house quite neat and most useless stuff had been thrown away.

The four friends had already decided that Jesse and Aubrey would live in one place and Beca and Chloe in another. That decided, Beca decided her house was easy to pack, since she barely had stuff and even less stuff she was really attached to. She decided to sold or throw away everything from the kitchen, plates, cutlery and stuff, and they would use Chloe's instead. The same happened with the towels, and the bed clothes were perhaps the only thing they would take from Beca's because Beca's sheets and those things were practically new, while Chloe's weren't new at all. Beca was quite permissive in general, letting it be the way Chloe could take most her family's things and Beca not so much. And Beca didn't care, really, she hadn't lived in that house for more than three years, part of them deployed, so she wasn't that attached to anything.

It took a whole day with a couple stops to eat and to let Chloe's heart rest, since the girl was sobbing and sniffling quietly all along, but a little after dinner they considered the house was clean. They all already had their houses in Boston bought and waiting for them to arrive, so they knew what they would be needing or not, and Beca decided Chloe's sofa was pretty comfy and fitted in their new living room, and also convinced Chloe to take some other furniture that wasn't too old or if it was, that conserved in a good state, that way they had to spend less in things, and Chloe didn't have to say goodbye to that many things. The moving company would come in the morning, take everything, and by the time the company reached Boston, they would already be there to welcome them. Beca had already sold her house and sent her few things to Boston, so it would be fine.

The five persons decided they would live everything packed into the locket house, go to the hotel to sleep, and be back first thing in the morning to give it to the moving company.

"You can come back every time you want to sweetie, really." Ruth was consoling Chloe with an arm around her as they finished closing some boxes and marking them with what kind of things they had. Chloe was completely unable to stop sobbing, and they understood it wasn't just for leaving her house, but for leaving the house where she grew up with all those amazing people that had left her so alone so soon.

While Beca and Jesse were upstairs making sure all the boxes were downstairs, Chloe and Aubrey sat in the living room, Aubrey hugging her crying mess of a friend.

"Done!" Beca and Jesse yelled from the stairs. Chloe cleaned her eyes and stood up with shaking legs.

They were about to go, when Beca stopped them.

"Guys, would you mind keep going? Chloe and I still have some stuff to do here." Beca said. They looked confused, but nodded and Beca closed the door behind them and turned to the confused Chloe with a smile "We haven't said goodbye to this place like it's mandatory to do."

"What?" Chloe asked confused. Beca took her hand and guided her to the living room. She took her phone out of her pocket and looked through the songs until she found the right one.

"Remember this?" Beca said putting one song and singing along " _You never know when you're gonna meet someone and your whole wide world in a moment comes undone. You're just walking around and suddenly, everything that you thought that you knew about love is gone. You find out it's all been wrong and all my scars don't seem to matter anymore, cause they led me here to you. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe that this could be the start of something good. Everyone knows life has its ups and downs, one day you're on top of the world and one day you're the clown, well I've been both enough to know, that you don't wanna get in the way when it's working out. The way that it is right now, you see my heart I wear it on my sleeve, cause I just can't hide it anymore. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe that this could be the start, cause I don't know where it's going, there's a part of me that loves not knowing, just don't let it end before we begin. You never know when you're gonna meet someone. And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone. I know that it's gonna take some time, I've got to admit that the thought has crossed my mind. This might end up like it should and I'm gonna say what I need to say and hope to God that it don't scare you away. Don't wanna be misunderstood, but I'm starting to believe, oh I'm starting to believe that this could be the start of something good_."

They had been dancing the whole time around, Beca cheering Chloe up, and at the end of the song they stood in front of each other with their hands intertwined.

"I didn't know you heard." Chloe whispered with glassy eyes.

"Your voice sounded like angels singing to me. _Of course_ I heard." Beca smiled at her. Next, her music list changed to 'Love me like you do'.

The two were dancing silly around the house, and singing-yelling the choruses along and playing stupid like kids. The happiness and rush of adrenaline Beca was getting just for seeing Chloe laugh and smile like that was unbelievable.

"Love me like you do, lo, lo, love me like you do, touch me like you do t, t, touch me like you do!" Chloe was yelling and Beca laughed spinning her around. Two things were discovered by Beca that day. One, Beca was a scarily bad dancer. Two, there was absolutely nothing Chloe didn't do flawlessly. After that, they danced to 'Love me harder', and then to 'I can't feel my face'.

"And I know she'll be the death of me at least we'll both be numb." Beca sang along the first sentence looking at Chloe with a smile. Soon, they were jumping and singing to each other "I can't feel my face when I'm with you, but I love it!"

Beca felt her heart race like she never did, and seeing Chloe's eyes sparkle that way and her laugh reverberate against the walls was doing something to her she couldn't understand but felt like being high. And song after song it just grew more.

"I'm without your kisses, I'll be needing stitches" Chloe sang around the stairs as they rang up and down.

They played hide and seek, sang, danced, and weren't back at the hotel until around four in the morning, but this time Chloe left laughing and not crying. Beca hugged her tightly as she, however, cried her eyes out the following day once the house got empty and she had a last walk around it.

Then, they said goodbye to Ruth, got into Beca's car, and the four friends started a road trip of four days towards Boston, Massachusetts. After twelve exhausting hours driving that got less exhausting as every three hours they changed driver so everybody got a good amount of rest, with some small stops every now and then, they had gone through Nebraska and were entering Iowa, where they spent the night. Early the next morning, after a good breakfast, they got into the car again, and around eight in the afternoon they reached…

"Good afternoon, Columbus, Ohio!" Jesse yelled as they stepped out of the car, tiredly but still they laughed at Jesse's enthusiasm for being in his hometown. Jesse had called his family and they were waiting for them.

The Swansons were a big family. Claire and Adam Swanson were parents of Milan, Jesse, Astin and Brielle, and they all lived in a big house in Columbus and had prepared quite a welcome for them. They were having dinner when Jesse suddenly fell on one knee next to Aubrey's house. Beca's jaw dropped, Chloe made a bird sound under her hands, and they all paid attention watching Jesse declare his love for his girlfriend for the past seven years, and propose to her. That night they had, obviously, engagement party and the following day on the road, the two lovebirds were more entangled than a bunch of hair after a week lost in an island.

While planning the trip, they had seen they would be going very close to the Niagara Falls, so they decided to make their last stop there, after eight long hours driving from Columbus. Chloe drove the first three, because the couple was exhausted after God knew what they did all night and Beca had slept rather bad, then Jesse substituted her, and soon they were in the Niagara Falls, early in the afternoon.

"Oh my God, this is awesome!" Beca yelled as they stood in a boat in front of the Niagara Falls. The amount of hallucinating they were having that trip was unbelievable. The four friends made thousands of pictures, bathed by the Falls, and saw all there was to see. After spending the night there, they left for Boston early in the morning. They made a twenty minute stop in Syracuse, and an hour stop in Albany, and by six in the afternoon, they were parking in front of their house in Boston.

They were neighbors, their snowy houses were one in front of the other, and both houses were awesome and beautiful. Aubrey started working next week, Jesse and Chloe started meetings and going to familiarize with the system of the University and stuff in two weeks, and Beca still had to find a job. Despite the exhaustion they had, plus the fact that Chloe had had major surgery a month ago, and Beca's brain still needed a lot of close attention and care, they still had to wait for the moving trucks that would arrive around eight, and put all the boxes into the house. Fortunately the company would move the furniture such as their sofa, the beds, and a few things more.

Beca and Chloe's house was pretty big. Chloe had gained over nine hundred thousand dollars between all the selling in India and Colorado, and Beca had her savings and had sold her house for five hundred thousand dollars. Both had already received a good part of it each already and the new owners would be paying a few thousands more every month, which was perfect.

"I'm dead." Beca whispered at one in the morning, when they were finally able to rest, and they fell on the closest bed of the two, that didn't even have the sheets on.

"Me too." Chloe snuggled against her "I'm cold."

"It's covered in white out there, we should probably get a blanket from the boxes." Beca whispered and finished her sentence with a yawn.

"Yes." Chloe said, but any of them moved. Instead, they hugged each other tightly covered with their coats and scarves, and fell asleep.

They woke up more for lunch than nothing else, but since their kitchen wasn't ready yet, they got together with Jesse and Aubrey and ordered.

"Oh my God." Aubrey gasped suddenly looking at her watch, and grinned jumping on Chloe, hugging her so tightly they both ended laughing on the floor, were they were sitting eating, and Aubrey covered Chloe in kisses "Happy birthday redhead!"

Beca raised her eyebrows and made numbers with her fingers before yelling.

"It's true! Happy birthday weirdo!" Beca hugged Chloe tightly too. After that realization, they spend the afternoon around partying. They came home early because they were too tired, and Beca and Chloe went to bed, after the whole day out they hadn't done a thing so they put the mattress on the floor of their living room, with a couple sheets and a blanket only, and they got ready to bed "Oh, almost forgot your present!" Beca remembered suddenly.

"What?" Chloe asked sleepily. Beca turned the lights on and ran to one of their suitcases. From there, she took a small paper bag and smiled looking at Chloe, extending it to her "Oh Beca, thank you, you didn't have to!" Beca smiled and shrugged.

Chloe pulled out a big velvet box, and opened it eyeing Beca suspiciously. She then gasped. It was a silver necklace with a little star hanging from it.

"You like it?" Beca asked as Chloe's eyes widened "I thought… well, you have been like my polar star, helping me find my way home. So…" she shrugged and Chloe grinned at her.

"Beca, I love it!" Beca's stomach flipped as Chloe hugged her tightly and suddenly she had no idea why she felt so dizzy "Put it on me?" Beca helped Chloe put the necklace around her neck "Oh Becs, I'm never removing it…" Chloe whispered turning around excitedly.

Beca stood breathless in front of Chloe. Her red mane fell savagely forming unorganized curls, her bright blue eyes seemed bigger and brighter, and her lips were too tempting. What was happening with her? She wasn't even gay. Right?

"I'm glad you like it" Beca whispered after clearing her throat.

They stood at each other for a bit, and Beca saw Chloe was staring at her lips again. Her heart beat strongly and suddenly, she had launched herself forward, had her hands holding Chloe's cheeks, and was kissing her right on the lips.

Beca moaned when Chloe took a fist of the hair in the back of her head and threw an arm around her neck to pull her closer as her lips moved to kiss her back passionately, and Beca threw her arms around Chloe's waist, pulling her closer as their lips moved together and their noses brushed against each other. Beca opened her eyes a little, and smiled against the kiss when she saw Chloe's were also a bit opened and darkened with desire, and the redhead smiled too, pulling apart before taking Beca's face between her hands and kissing her passionately. Chloe moaned when Beca took her leg from her thigh and moved her knee to press against Beca's hip, before moving a hand to Chloe's ass to support her as Chloe jumped to hug her waist with her legs, climbing on her while Beca supported her with her hands under her ass, all of this without stopping with the kiss.

Beca walked to their TV's furniture -that still was just the furniture, without TV or anything- and sat Chloe there while their lips moved passionately against each other. Chloe tasted like sweet, and was so soft and perfect, and they weren't even exchanging tons of saliva like bad kisses usually went by, so for Beca, this was the best kiss ever, even if she didn't remember having kissed before. Beca panted when Chloe hugged her tighter with her legs, pressing them more fiercely together, and her lips moved to Beca's jaw, earlobe, and neck, where she bit. Beca smirked, _of course_ Chloe was a teeth's girl. Not long after, Beca had walked them to their mattress on the floor, sitting there with Chloe on her lap. Chloe soon had removed Beca's pajama t-shirt and was kissing her neck and fondling her braless breasts as Beca panted and moaned under her touch, letting herself fall against the mattress. Beca took Chloe's face between her hands and moved her until they were face to face, staring seriously at each other. Beca took a moment to admire the image. Chloe was blushing, her pupils dilated, and her lips swollen and it was so freaking sexy.

"I love you." Beca said suddenly, and Chloe grinned.

"I love you too." Chloe replied, and this time Beca smiled moving up a bit to reach her lips and kiss her again.

Soon, both girls were shirtless, touching each other everywhere. Beca felt dizzy and shut her eyes close, and suddenly, she wasn't there, lying naked under Chloe as they kissed each other and touched like if it was their last night alive, but face down against a very comfortable bed, knelt on her knees and forearms while a big hand gripped her boob and another her ass cheeks, as somebody behind her moaned and grunted while penetrating her deeply, moving her and the bed forward and backwards repeatedly. Beca had her forehead against her arms, tears in her cheeks as she bit her lip so much she could feel the metallic taste. Then, the man behind her made a distinctive, deep throated sound, and went still. He kissed her back before pulling out of her and throwing a condom to a trash can next to them, and then stood up putting his clothes back on. Beca sat on the bed and rubbed her eyes quickly, taking the sheets and putting them around her. In front of her, a man in his forties, fat and ugly, to be honest, was putting his suit back on and putting a wallet out of his pocket.

"You said a thousand, right?" the man asked.

"Yes." Beca whispered, and the man put a bunch of green papers in front of Beca, who took them and counted a thousand dollars.

"You were even more outstanding tonight, Mitch."

"Beca! Beca!" Her eyes snapped open. She was lying on a mattress, supported in an almost sitting position thanks to a pair of hands on the back of her shoulders, shaking her awake. A blanket was around herself, and in front of her, a very worried Chloe with her t-shirt back on, was staring at her filled with concern "Beca" Chloe whispered seeing she was awake. Beca breathed deeply, feeling her cheeks wet and trying to understand what just happened "You were crying, you remembered something, didn't you?" Beca stared blankly at her and Chloe pulled her into her arms, hugging her tightly "Beca, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Chloe pulled apart just enough to look at her, an arm around Beca and a hand on her cheek, her thumb rubbing her cheek "Are you okay Beca?"

"I…" Beca breathed deeply again and threw her arms around Chloe, her right side pressed against Chloe's front and her cheek against her chest, while Chloe leant to look at her "I think I sold my body for money."


	12. Chapter 12

_Getting a tiny bit disappointed with reviews… lack of interest in the story now? Well ;)_

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 **Chapter 12: Air.**

Beca woke up the day after Chloe's birthday with the redhead's arms around her and her breathing against the back of her neck. Beca stood up, kissed Chloe, and tucked her better, throwing a sweat jacket on, and going to their kitchen. The only things they had put in place were the coffee machine and the cutlery, so Beca made coffee for the two of them, found some mugs, and served herself coffee. According to Chloe's watch on her wrist, it was still quite early, so Beca wasn't really surprised when she peeked into the living room and found Chloe still asleep just like she left her.

She turned the central heating on, because it was like four degrees Celsius outside, and went to the boxes that were in what would be her bedroom, although she wasn't sure if now Chloe and her would just sleep in one same bedroom. It was the logical thing, they had just made out, and even before, they were always sharing bedroom at their respective houses. If Beca thought about it, in the last couple months she had only slept alone for a few weeks when she was alone or Chloe was in the hospital. However, she took a notebook at made notes of her room's measures, thinking what kind of furniture she wanted, and the measures it would have to have, and how did she want her room to look like. Then, she left the boxes of her things there, and went to the bathrooms, putting towels, toothbrushes, and all the things necessary in the bathrooms.

Their house was really big. The first floor had a bathroom, an enormous living room, a kitchen and a dining room. The second floor had three bedrooms, one of them with an en suite bathroom, another bathroom, and another room that they had thought could serve has a small library or studio. Also, there was a trap door in the ceiling of the corridor that leaded to a tiny attic. The thing was, Beca had a great amount of savings that only grew after selling her house, and Chloe had some savings, but after selling her apartment in Delhi, her house in Denver, and inheriting all the heritage of her parents and brother, she was quite rich. Of course they would have to invest a lot in the house, but Beca thought it could only be fun. Their house was also surrounded by a big garden where they wanted to build a swimming pool one day, and a barbecue, and maybe plant their own little vegetable garden.

Now, Beca basically had to take measures of everything because that week the four friends would go to Ikea and buy everything they needed, which would be so many things Beca was already scared. But they barely had furniture, and they, being realistic, needed too many things. Beca was supported on a wall taking notes in a notebook that, lacking tables, had to be done against the wall, when she felt a pair of arms around her, Chloe's scent, and light kisses behind her ear.

"Good morning." Chloe whispered sleepily. Beca smiled.

"Good morning ginger." Beca turned her face to a side and Chloe launched forward to kiss her on the lips, which eventually leaded to the falling of the notebook and the pen and both girls hugging each other, entangled in a mess of hair and arms while they kissed passionately.

"I thought after last night you wouldn't…" Chloe started while Beca attacked her breasts with her mouth. A _pop_ sounded and Beca's lips abandoned Chloe's nipple.

"I love you, you're hot, and gorgeous, and why not?" Beca shrugged and kissed her again.

"But Becs…" Chloe pulled apart and put her hands against Beca's chest to keep her at bay "Are you sure? You just remembered you used to…"

"Be a whore?" Beca completed pulling apart with a forced side smile.

"No." Chloe grabbed her hand before Beca could go "To be in such a bad situation you had no choice but to make money out of carnal pleasures. You just remembered that, while we were about to have sex, and I don't know if you're ready Becs."

Beca pursed her lips briefly, nodding, and put her sweat jacket back on place, took the notebook, put the pen between her lips, and took the measuring tape like if nothing had happened, extending it to measure the window in case they wanted to buy curtains or something, since they only had blinds. Chloe stared sadly at her but understood she had misunderstood her, or understood her perfectly and just gotten upset about it, and put her t-shirt back in place, walking towards the door. She looked back when she reached it, and saw Beca entertained writing numbers in the notebook. Chloe bit her lip wanting to say more but not knowing what to say.

"I do am in love with you, Bec. And I do want you." Chloe said, and seeing Beca ignored her, she just went downstairs again, figuring she could always start putting things in the kitchen.

Beca isolated herself upstairs for the rest of the day, pretending to be incredibly busy, and Chloe understood she needed time to think, so since she was too tired after all the moving and also with her surgery, she just kept herself downstairs and unwrapped the sofa from the big wrapping where the moving guys had put it to protect it, and lied on the sofa playing on the phone and taking naps from time to time.

Around lunch time, Jesse and Aubrey knocked by the door, and Chloe went to open the door.

"Please tell me you bring food." Chloe asked. She was already dressed and she had been thinking of adventuring and finding a supermarket, but she was too lazy for that and the coldness outside didn't help motivating her. Aubrey chuckled kissing her cheek.

"No, but we're hungry too, so why don't we all go have lunch somewhere?" Jesse asked.

"Good luck convincing Beca, she hasn't left upstairs all morning." Chloe sighed closing the door behind her.

"What?" Aubrey frowned staring at her. Both friends looking concerned now and Chloe sighed again.

"She remembered something last night. And I think she needs time to think, so she just kept herself busy taking measures and stuff upstairs, I think she just needs a bit of time of herself." Chloe explained. She wasn't willing to go around telling everybody they almost had sex not once but twice without talking with the brunette first.

"All morning is time enough, isn't it?" Jesse wondered.

"I'll go talk to her see if she wants to join us." Chloe said, walking upstairs. She would run, but her lung was still recovering. Chloe found Beca putting her clothes out of suitcases, seemingly thinking to change "Hey."

"Hi." Beca replied, rummaging through her suitcase.

"Jesse and Aubrey are home. We're going out for lunch, and we'd really like it if you would join us. We can wait for you to get dressed or anything you need." Chloe offered kindly.

"I'll go say hi in a moment, but I'm gonna pass this one. Have fun." Beca replied.

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Why." Beca repeated removing her sweat jacket.

"Why did you get upset earlier, why have you isolated yourself here all day, why are you being so cold, why won't you come with us?" Chloe asked.

"I got upset earlier because I had reasons, I've been up here all day because I'm tired of not having furniture or anything that makes this place look more like a warm home and less like a big igloo, I'm not being cold I'm just tired, and I won't come with you because it's freezing cold outside, and I'm tired, and I'm not going to spend any of my free time freezing outside while looking for someplace to eat in a city I don't know instead of being warm here and still have time to invest in our house." Beca replied quickly, and Chloe sighed at the end.

"Okay, have fun." Chloe said, before leaving downstairs "Beca will come in a second to say hi, but won't come with us because this cold it's too unappealing for her Seattleite self."

"Is everything okay between you two?" Aubrey asked concerned.

"Honestly, I don't know Aubrey." Chloe replied "But I'm too tired and in too much need of following my doctor's commands and not overwork myself to even stop and think what is going on. If she wants to do whatever, she's twenty six, she has age to do so."

Aubrey offered her a sympathetic hug and not two minutes later Beca ran downstairs and grinned hugging Aubrey and Jesse.

"Hi lovebirds!" Beca greeted "How's that moving going?"

"Sucks, we have a thousand things and no place to leave them." Jesse smirked.

"We really should go to Ikea tomorrow." Beca said shaking her head.

"We should." Aubrey nodded "So, coming with us for lunch? I bet this cold is nothing for a Seattleite."

"Well since I haven't lived in Seattle since I was like fourteen and I don't even remember it, I'll pass. Too much cold for my liking." Beca said with a little smile.

"Oh, come on, are you gonna hibernate all the winters? You don't know how long are you going to stay here, it could be forever." Jesse replied.

"Nah, I will go out when I can come home and not get depressed because home doesn't really look like it. But have fun guys, I'll be fine, really. Chloe, should I still count with you to buy paint later and paint this house?" Beca asked looking at Chloe.

"Uh, tomorrow. We can buy the paint on the way home from buying half Ikea, and paint tomorrow, since most things will take their time to arrive." Chloe replied not feeling like painting. Beca nodded "I don't even know what color do I want nothing."

"Alright, then bye people, don't leave Chloe to be your third wheel. And take my car." Beca handed her car keys to Aubrey, waved, and left upstairs.

Chloe wasn't back until late that afternoon, and by then Beca had had the time to organize their books for thematic and alphabetic order, and even some things more, and was now sitting in front of their garden crystal door observing the outside with a small bottle of beer in her hand.

"Ugh, we definitely need to crash the Ikea tomorrow." Chloe commented walking into the living room and leaving her coat and scarf on the sofa, lacking any other place. She also left the keys on a step of the stairs before going to the living room "Luckily this place is warm." Chloe let herself fall on the sofa.

"I carried our mattresses to the bedrooms." Beca said "And made the beds. So we can sleep properly tonight."

"Right, thanks." Chloe stared at her from the sofa and frowned "I thought you couldn't drink if you were taking medicine."

"I haven't taken it today, and I just drank half a stubby." Beca replied looking at the small bottle.

"Well you should take your meds every day, or else your head won't get better." Chloe argued, and Beca shut up. Maybe it was because, not feeling alright, she didn't have the same patience, but she was starting to have enough of Beca's behavior "I'm gonna sleep upstairs for a while. Be so kind of buying some dinner or something, because I don't feel fine." Chloe said before leaving the room. Beca nodded and heard her steps climbing the stairs.

Beca decided to go do grocery shopping and prepare a nice dinner, since they at least had plates and all the kitchen stuff ready. She filled a plate generously and put it in a nice tray she had seen and bought, with cutlery, napkins and a glass of water, before taking the tray upstairs and going into Chloe's bedroom. After seeing the redhead was sleeping, she decided to leave the tray next to her and woke her up.

"Chlo, come on, it's dinner time." Beca said kindly shaking Chloe, who grunted "I promise I made something good. Tasted it myself."

"Okay." Chloe sat up and looked at the plate "Smells nice."

"Of course it does." Beca nodded "Eat. I'll pick up the plate in a bit." Chloe looked at her when she was about to leave.

"Beca!" Beca turned around "Join me?" Beca nodded, and left to get her food.

She was back a bit later and they both sat on the mattress to eat, in silence. Chloe finished quickly and lied back with a sigh.

"Are you okay?" Beca asked Chloe concerned.

"My scar is itchy and my lung hates this cold." Chloe whispered.

"Do you need your meds?" Beca asked "Is there anything I can do besides keeping the house warm?"

"No." Chloe replied, sighing again. Beca finished her dinner and then stood up and leaned to tuck Chloe in the bed. She kissed her forehead and picked up all the things.

"Sleep tight little flame." Beca whispered leaving the bedroom.

It was Beca who couldn't sleep that night. She tossed, and finally she stood up and went to Chloe's bedroom.

"Chlo?" hearing no response, she snuck in Chloe's bed and spooned behind her, finding Chloe's hand by her chest and intertwining their fingers as she got comfortable behind her.

"Beca? what are you doing here?" Chloe whispered after a while.

"We shouldn't sleep separated. It's wrong, I don't know how to do it, and it doesn't work." Beca replied. Chloe huffed.

"We were sleeping separated because of you asshole." Chloe whispered. Beca sighed but shut up, pressing her nose against Chloe's back.

"If you know I'm an asshole, you shouldn't listen to me." Beca replied in a whisper.

"I'll take note for the next time." Chloe whispered back. They lied in silence for a while. Chloe was trying to fall asleep again, and Beca had so many thoughts running through her brain she didn't even know where to start. After a few minutes, she finally spoke.

"How can you love someone you don't even know, or trust them enough to let them sleep with you?" Beca said. Chloe moved a bit.

"I do know you, Beca." Chloe replied "Not knowing bites of your life doesn't mean a thing, you don't know a lot about my life either. I know the important stuff, and I know enough to fall in love with you. And you haven't given me any reasons to not trust you after having had you living with me, and having lived with you so…"

Beca lied in silence, but fell a knot in her throat grow. She was thinking things she didn't want to voice out and make Chloe uncomfortable with her stupid thoughts, when all the ginger wanted was to rest her upset body down. After all, she had surgery like a month ago and still had a long way to completely recover, mentally and physically, she wasn't to be disturbed with Beca's nonsense. That wasn't nonsense for her, of course, but she did believe that it was for everyone else. That she would be disturbing people, and she loved Chloe too much to bother her like that.

"Beca." Chloe said suddenly "Your thoughts are too loud for midnight."

"Sorry." Beca made a move to untangle herself and pull apart, but Chloe gripped her hand tightly, not letting her go.

"That's not the solution." Chloe replied, and Beca stared at the back of her head confused. Chloe then turned around and gripped Beca's hand on top of her stomach, staring at her in the dark. She sighed and Beca felt in the verge of tears, so she was thankful the darkness barely let her see the outline of Chloe illuminated by the light coming from the windows. "Beca, talk to me, I know that there's something bugging you. What's going on? Just tell me and I'll listen."

Beca felt her lip quiver before she strangled a sob to keep it down, and Chloe frowned in concern and put a hand on Beca's cheek, rubbing the skin with her thumb.

"I'm not good enough. I'm not worthwhile. You made a mistake saving my life." Beca whispered hoarsely. Chloe stood up, went to turn the light on, and then pulled Beca up into a sitting position, and sat in front of her with her legs by her sides and her hands on her knees, supporting her chin there as she scrutinized Beca, who looked down.

"What are you talking about Beca?" Chloe asked, and for Beca's surprise, she didn't seem disturbed or bothered, only concerned. Beca shrugged.

"My father never wanted me. My mother never wanted me. The streets never wanted me. I probably didn't feel much appreciation for myself submitting myself to the job of a prostitute and to the crap of war and the Army, that didn't want me either, just employed and used me. I just wasn't worthwhile. My granny, who did want me, died, and it's probably the only thing I've know as love before I met you. Nobody cared before, not even myself, for my own life." Beca whispered and sniffled as the rubbed a tear away from her eye "When you told me I wasn't ready, I realized, I don't even know myself, I can't remember, and therefore, I will never know what kind of things I'm gonna detriment you with. We don't have sex because it brought me bad memories, but what if there are a thousand things we'd like to do together and then we try and it turns out I can't? or what if I remember I'm a hired killer?" Beca let a trembling breath out and Chloe's frown deepened "You deserve much better than me Chloe. With me, it's all going to be surprises, and apparently not the good kind, I'm even expecting that some unknown part of my past suddenly catches up with me and appears by my door telling me I had sex with them, or I'm the mother of somebody's children, or somebody's girlfriend, or somebody's murder, and you deserve someone who can talk to you about their life, and be transparent with you so you know what there is and what to expect, and with me, it's like if I kept everything in secret and kept away from you because I just don't remember."

Chloe observed her for some time, but Beca saw she wasn't looking at her anymore, she looked thoughtful so she was probably trying to figure out where to start or what to tell her.

"Beca… you don't get to worry about our relationship." Chloe started "We haven't even started dating or anything, and you're already thinking what kinds of things you will make a bit harder in our relationship, whichever that is?" Chloe continued "That's… you shouldn't do that. But if you're going to worry about that, I can tell you right now that whatever is it that you remembered or that you didn't feel like doing, we wouldn't, we would never do or try nothing that you said no to, unless it was something I really, like, really, really wanted, in which case I would probably fight before completely putting it off the table. But that would be like that in our friendship, and it would be in any other kind of relationship you had with me, and with the rest of the world you should demand the same. And it doesn't bother me, it wouldn't suppose me any disturb or anything, is normal, pure consideration doing things respecting your loved one's wishes, so you don't have to worry about that." Chloe breathed deeply and stared at Beca "I don't know what being with you would be like, or what kinds of things will knock at our door, but Beca, the thing is I'm in love with you. And I don't care about nothing else because in my world, if you love someone you fight for it, if you love a warrior, you fight with them, and if there are stones in the way then that's how life works, when you're single, when you have a couple, and always, it's just how life works and I expect difficulties not because you're you, not because I'm interested in Beca Mitchell, but because I'm alive and life is like that."

"You say that now but what if I was a serial killer? What if I had another family like Jordan?" Beca suggested. Chloe shrugged and shook her head.

"You're not a serial killer because even if you were, now you aren't, and judging by how fast have you left the Army, I wouldn't say you'll want to be, but if you were and it now gives you any trouble, then I'm fighting with you, Bec, because I'm in love with you and I'll have to be mad to leave you alone, even more if it's against something potentially life-threatening." Chloe smiled a little "And if you have another family, then we'll meet them, I'll sit with you to help you take decisions, and I'll support them one hundred percent. And we have a bunch of extra bedrooms, so we can take care of whatever comes with that." Chloe explained easily "Beca, what you don't get is that past is only past. Is something we own who we are to, but is not us. Your past is the reason you are you, so it's okay by me, and it's not your actual you, and remembering it, will only mean you'll have more memories to entertain me with and a different way to thing some stuff, but won't make you a whole different person, and if it affected you so much, if it was that remarkable, I would help you out, and a professional if needed."

"Are you sure?" Beca looked at her doubtful.

"Am I sure a table is still a table regardless of what kind of tree it was? Yes. Am I sure I will still love you regardless of what kind of psychological crap it turns out you have? Yes. And if it's too much it affects my ability to love you, then it's all the more reason to seek for the professional help that if I remember correctly, you've been given. As long as you're okay Beca, there's no reason for us to work okay." Chloe explained like if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"What if you get sick of me?" Beca asked in a barely audible voice fidgeting with the border of her t-shirt.

"We'll cross that bridge if we reach it." Chloe shrugged and leaned forward taking Beca's hands between hers and pressing their foreheads together, making Beca look at her. Chloe smiled reassuringly "And I do want you Beca. All of you." Chloe leaned more and kissed her slowly. Beca kissed her back timidly and Chloe brought her hands to Beca's cheeks to cup her face between her hands as she kissed her. Then, Chloe pulled apart, smiling at Beca's face cupped between her hands with the eyes opened in surprise and swollen red lips pursed "Since I do want you, and I do think you're the most amazing thing in the world and not only because you saved my life, I should probably ask, would you want to be my girlfriend?" Beca smiled at her making her cheeks look chubbier because they pressed more against Chloe's hands, which Chloe thought was too cute.

"Sure, but only if you take me on dates. You already know Boston more than me." Beca replied, and Chloe grinned.

"Of course." Chloe kissed her passionately and they made out for a while until Chloe pulled apart again "Mind if we go to sleep now? I'm super tired."

"Sure. I'll turn the light off before the Swansons sneak a peek." Beca joked and got up turning the switch off and going back to the bed, quickly snuggling with Chloe.


	13. Chapter 13

_Thanks Mila and surfinxgirl13 for your reviews and the attention! This week's shout out goes to you and also to Susan, for just being awesome. Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 13: Building a home.**

"This is not good for my head." Beca murmured after the first hour and a half in the Ikea.

"Beca, what do you think about this for the TV we ordered?" Chloe asked looking at some short table "It has this small doors for the DVDs and stuff." Beca looked at it silently for a bit. They had finally spent a couple days painting their house with the future Swanson's help and helping them paint theirs, because between four people rooms were painted in a moment, and now they had headed to the closest Ikea. They planned to buy the big things, the most necessary at the moment to collocate the stuff they had, and then take mental note of other interesting stuff for decoration or just extras like lamps and stuff, and go back another day when their house was an actual house.

"Yeah okay, it goes with the wall color. Are we still putting it where we talked?" Beca asked and Chloe nodded taking note of the product's number and name to pick it up at the end.

For those who have never been to an Ikea, Ikea is a Scandinavian multinational group of companies that designs and sells furniture and a bunch of other stuff, basically all you can need for your house, and they have big blue buildings all around the world with all kinds of things. You enter a corridor surrounded by what could be rooms of a house and see the furniture, and all kinds of things they have, and at the end of the very long tour you went to a part to pick up the big stuff -smallest things such as plants, adornments... could be picked up as you saw them- and then to pay. For that you had to take note of the furniture so you could find it at infinitively long shelves with the packed furniture at the end. The furniture bought there is ready to ensemble, but still you may need a few tools, reason why the four friends had spent a couple hours the day before buying tools.

"Hey Chlo, I like those chairs for the dining room. They're comfy." Beca said testing some chairs.

"Yeah, I like them too." Chloe sat on one and looked at Beca "I haven't liked the ones we saw earlier. How many should we buy?"

"If we buy the table we took note of before, we have space for six, that way it can be the four of us and maybe my mother and someone more if we had guests. And we should really look for at least a couple stools for our kitchen island." Beca said not seeing the moment they could get out. Since the building had no windows the time seemed not to pass.

"You're right. So we buy this or find others?" Chloe asked.

"We're almost by the plants section, let's buy these ones and get it over with." Beca said getting impatient "These are good Chloe, we both like them."

After what seemed like an eternity, the four friends stepped exhausted out of the payment zone with four carts filled to the top strategically and still many other things ordered to be sent home. They had spent a quantity of money they didn't even want to think of, and now they were happy to walk towards the restaurant section, a section all Ikeas had where they sold different kinds of food, warm and cold such as hotdog, pasta, sweets and other stuff, and also they had all kinds of drinks. They had already spent the morning buying the electrical appliances such as the stoves, the washing machines, and a long list of other things, and they were exhausted, so they were happy to just sit and chill out.

"God, and we still have to ensemble everything." Jesse sighed leaning back on his chair with a hotdog in hand.

"At least is entertaining, instructions here are very clear and it's almost like a game." Aubrey said "Come on, the hardest part is done. Next week we come back and buy only stuff that seems interesting, useful, or just nice and it's the funniest part of it, when you get to give the real vibe and have fun."

Beca sighed and rubbed her temples. Her head was already reminding her she wasn't fine and that tired her more than all the paperwork they had had to do. Who knew moving somewhere was so difficult. Chloe noticed her discomfort and rubbed her back, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Everything okay?" Chloe asked sweetly with such concerned look. Beca smiled and nodded.

"Yeah I just can't wait to ensemble a bed and lie down for a while." Beca replied. Chloe smiled and kissed her on the cheek very near to her lips, since they hadn't told their friends they were more into a romantic relationship, but they had already been suspecting anyway, Beca had seen them stare and murmur, and she knew they were acting like a couple "I think I'll entertain myself with one of the bookcases later anyway, I don't know if it's because soldiers like handy work but it does seem entertaining."

"Right?" Aubrey smiled "I'm assembling our new bedside tables tonight." She added looking at Jesse, who chuckled and rubbed her head tenderly.

"My crazy blonde." Jesse joked before kissing her.

Beca couldn't believe her eyes when four days later, their house looked like their house. All the rooms were complete, even some things had been added to their garden -including a lawnmower that they had already used- and the boxes were gone. The only things missing were the decoration things and a couple tiny things they had suggested and approved to make it all better. Beca now felt a bit OCD, like if the smallest imperfection, dirtiness, or scratch would result unbearable, but she was very happy with the result and with how their house looked. It was just perfect, and it did feel like home.

They had also decided to sleep together. The future Swansons still didn't know for sure they were together, but Beca and Chloe had already assembled their bedroom as their bedroom -the biggest bedroom of the house and the only one with an en suite bathroom- and what was going to be Beca's bedroom was now Ruth Fanning's bedroom in case she wanted to visit one day. As they had another two bedrooms, it was fine because that one could really be one hundred percent Ruth's bedroom to leave her things or do with it as she pleased. They also divided the studio in two sections that merged together really well. Since Chloe was going to be a teacher, she needed a decent place to work at home, with shelves, bookcases, archeological nerd stuff, her desk and a comfortable chair where she could spend hours without losing her back, and they decided it would be mainly Chloe's space because for her it was elemental for her work. Beca contented with a small part of it where she could sit with her laptop to play games or work if she ended up having a job that could use that space, and Chloe loved that Beca had already compromised to spend an amount of hours there. Beca also loved the room, or her inner child did, because they put all the things they brought from Chloe's house, and those were always weird, like weird statues from centuries ago and all kinds of things.

And a room Beca really, really had fallen in love with -although she really loved them all- was the kitchen. Their kitchen was a rectangular space with warm colors, and was connected to the dining room, only divided by half a wall that had in the middle the gap of their 'kitchen island' and fused with the rest of the two rooms really making them one in a perfect way. Plus, it worked kind of as a window to sit and see from the living room the kitchen.

Chloe was now cooking lunch, since Ruth was coming that day to stay for a few days with them, Jesse and Aubrey came to lunch too, and Beca had been finishing touches organizing books in the bookcase and configuring their TV, and now she had gone to the kitchen to do one of the things she loved the most in the world; sit on a stool of the kitchen island, with her face on her hands, and observe silently how Chloe worked in the kitchen. Chloe was, in Beca's opinion, the sexiest woman alive, and seeing her cook was a delight to the senses. How the vapors made her blush a little and her hair look wilder, how she seemed so attentive to everything she did, and the faces she made when tasting the food, rolling her eyes slowly as she focused in each savor.

"Creep." Chloe smiled at Beca seeing her sit on her usual spot like an eagle. Beca just smiled back proudly "Taste this." Chloe offered her a spoon of sauce and Beca tasted it eagerly.

"Yummy, what is it?" Beca replied.

"I'm doing raita, momos, and what you just tasted is chana dal." Chloe explained and Beca licked her lips.

"Indian food." Beca smiled and Chloe nodded.

"Think your mom will like it?"

"Well I loved and my mom said she likes everything so…" Beca shrugged.

"Awesome. When are you picking her up?" Chloe asked.

"When I've finished eating you with my eyes." Beca joked and Chloe laughed "I'm joking, I actually have to leave if I don't want to make her wait for me by the snow for ours."

"Okay." Chloe smiled when Beca hugged her from behind and started kissing her neck, subconsciously tilting her head to a side to give her more room "Are you gonna tell her about us on your way here?"

"No, we were waiting for lunch to tell them all at once right?" Beca replied between kisses, her hands already caressing Chloe's belly under her sweater as Chloe nodded. She had one of those long necked sweaters that stick so much to the body and mark perfectly all the curves and it was making Beca sick. They hadn't had sex yet but Beca had had a couple hot dreams so far, that luckily weren't object of comments to Chloe.

"As much as I'm enjoying this, there is six degrees (Celsius) outside and I like your mother too much to have her be the Bostonian Olaf." Chloe joked turning to kiss her goodbye.

"Okay, bye." Beca squeezed one of her ass cheeks playfully before leaving the kitchen.

"Remember to wrap up warm enough!" Chloe yelled from the kitchen.

Beca smiled taking her coat and leaving the house to confront the white exterior. She had learnt to put the chains on the wheels of her car there, and she hadn't removed them yet, although they were expecting a thunderstorm in the next week so the snow would probably go away for a bit. Beca and Chloe had cut a giant piece of cardboard and had written with colored letters 'Mommy Ruth' because they knew Ruth would grin when Beca held that sign at the airport, and it would also be useful so Ruth could see Beca between the multitude.

"Beca!" Ruth grinned from ear to ear running towards Beca with a suitcase and a handbag, and they hugged each other tightly.

"Hi mom! How was the flight?"

"It was good, exhausting, almost four hours flying, but I would've flown ten if necessary, you know? Oh dear God I love this!" Ruth held the sign excitedly.

"You can keep it in your new room." Beca smiled taking her bag and suitcase "Follow me, I have the car in the parking lot."

"So the house is good, did you guys finish the remodeling?"

"Yeah." They walked towards the outside. They had been calling each other if not every day every couple days, and sending emails with photos when they could. Chloe had loved to see how her childhood house looked like now "It's pretty great, I love every room so damn much. Chloe loved your house by the way, it ended up pretty nice, right?"

"Yes, I barely had to buy a few things, any big changes. I loved it how it was since the beginning." Ruth commented "I loved the pictures you sent, it looks like such a warm place."

"Well it had to, I mean" they stepped outside "see what I'm talking about?"

"Oh, chilly!" Ruth smiled rubbing Beca's arms, and Beca smirked and nodded.

"Exactly, we have central heating and almost always on, but in the mornings after turning it off all night is crazy. Keep a sweater close to your bed. We have to turn it off at night because we aren't millionaire." Beca explained as they walked through the parking lot.

"Of course, yes." Ruth nodded in understanding "How's your head, now that I remember?"

"It's fine as long as I take my medication and don't overwork too much, reason why I barely am allowed to drive, read, or even watch TV, but it's okay. I keep having headaches from time to time though but the doctor I've been given here said it's perfectly normal the first few months after the concussion, so it's okay, we have painkillers in handy anyway because of Chloe." Beca explained putting the suitcase into the truck.

"How's Chloe by the way?"

"She's better, still needs her naps sometimes, but now that we've finished the most difficult part and she can rest more, she's a lot better. Her lung is also improving, but her doctor won't let her be out too much because it's too cold and a cold is the last thing she needs. And the scar is healing really good and she's sleeping pretty good, so that's great." They got into the car.

"Does she remember what happened?" Ruth asked with a concerned frown.

"She remembers bits of it." Beca replied "She remembers being with me and getting into the helicopter, and then she doesn't remember a thing until several days later waking up in Beijing."

"Poor thing, at least she didn't get very traumatized." Ruth had taken Chloe almost like another daughter.

"Yeah." Beca maneuvered to get the car out of the parking spot "I was surprised by that, she barely had some nights destroyed by nightmares back in Beijing or when we were in Carson City, but then they went away."

"That's good, as long as she's fine." Ruth commented "God, this place is so beautiful."

"Yeah, and huge." Beca smirked while driving "Chloe has learnt her way to the University by now. She's going to be the one to use this car the most, since she has to be there quite often once the school year begins."

"Oh, did you remember how to play the guitar?" Ruth asked. While packing up her things to leave, Beca had found in Carson City an old guitar, that Ruth had told her was a gift from Granny Jude, who played it and taught Beca, since Ruth hadn't had interest back in the day, feeling more attracted for other things. But Beca had been really good and Beca could tell it meant a lot for her past self, since she had rather sold herself for money than her guitar. It meant a lot still, because it was the only thing she had from such a special person, not even memories she had, but she didn't remember how to play.

"Not yet, and Chloe won't let me spend too many ours thinking about it because she says I overwork my brain." Beca chuckled.

"That woman does you good." Ruth smiled and Beca nodded.

"Living with a best friend is also quite enjoyable. Plus, we already know each other's fixations so there aren't surprises. The weird thing was not sharing a bed the first couple days, because in her house in India there was only one so we had to share, and at my place there was only one because the other was for Jesse and Aubrey, and since she didn't let me sleep on the sofa and I didn't let her back in Delhi, we didn't let each other do it in my house." Beca explained.

"And now?"

"Now is not weird anymore." Beca smirked not saying that now they shared bed so it wasn't weird anymore.

"Hi Ruth!" Chloe hugged her tightly twenty minutes later as they walked into the living "The flight good?"

"Yes sweetheart, thanks! Smells nice!" Chloe took her coat to hang it.

"Indian food, Chloe is an authentic chef." Beca smiled at Chloe giving her a quick peek now that Ruth was giving them her back.

"Jesse and Aubrey are in the dining room." Chloe informed "Please, come in."

"If it tastes like it smells this is gonna be awesome." Ruth smiled walking inside.

They all greeted each other and since the food was ready, they sat to eat. Ruth couldn't stop complimenting everything, the food, the paint of the walls, the furniture… but they could see she wasn't just complimenting, that she really felt her words inside.

"Why haven't I eaten Indian before? This is delicious." Ruth was saying.

"And to think that the first months in India we ate anything but Indian food." Jesse remembered with a smirk "Hey Ruth, did Beca send you pics of the Niagara Falls?"

"Yes yes, amazing place uh? I've never been. Beca's father…"

"Jordan." Beca interrupted "Please mom that man can't be called my father."

"True." Ruth conceded "Jordan and I, when we were very young, we used to take the car and go around seeing the bit of the world we could. You see, we met in college, in New York City actually, so we would take his car, and go around, we came to Boston, we went to Pittsburg, Virginia… many places. But never too far away, lack of money of course. The more I've travelled has been in the past five, six years, I've seen many countries, mostly Europe, and I went once to Iraq, where I had this short affair with this handsome guy…" she remembered. Beca smirked.

"I've been in Iraq, but no memories. You'll have to tell me." Beca said.

"Sure!" Ruth said enthusiastically "You should go back as a civilian now, amazing place."

"Hey mom, now that I remember" Beca started "you won't know by any chance what did I want to be when I was older, right? I just have like no idea and I need a job but I want one that I can enjoy and I don't have a college degree so I don't wanna end up working in the McDonalds."

"I never knew honey, sorry." Ruth said "Although your granny knew, and she did tell me you would be a good musician. She got me into buying you this small set of drums but you used it so much I threw it away proving how awesome mother I was." She said with sarcasm "And I know you used to love Jordan's telescope before he caught you using it, gave you one hell of a scolding and took the telescope away. But I have no idea honey, you never said a word about college to me."

"Awesome." Beca sighed "Maybe I should just go back to college."

"You should." Aubrey said, and Chloe nodded "Any other job you find will be crap without a major."

"Okay, what do I major in?" Beca asked.

"Babe, you need to stop and think what things you like." Chloe said it so naturally she didn't realize she had said _babe_ until the whole table was staring. Beca seemed about to laugh, Aubrey seemed to be trying to figure out if it was normal touchy Chloe and her nicknames or something else, Jesse seemed thoughtful, and Ruth seemed suspicious.

"Chloe girl, you really have it easy for caring nicknames." Jesse commented. Chloe bit her lip trying to hide a smirk and between her face and Beca's they knew they had been caught.

"Oh shoot!" Aubrey slapped Chloe's arm.

"What?" Jesse seemed confused.

"Oh my God!" Ruth squealed.

"Okay, calm down." Beca chuckled.

"What's going on?" Jesse asked and Chloe rolled her eyes and moved to kiss Beca sweetly on the lips, which only made their guests squeal more "Oh for God's sakes, it was time already! All that eye sex was making me feel so uncomfortable." Chloe and Beca smiled pulling apart.

"When?" Aubrey asked.

"A few days ago?" Beca shrugged "Seriously Aubrey, you guys are blind, we've been acting like a marriage for such a long time…"

"Aw, they're in their engagement bubble!" Chloe laughed.

"Shut up, this is awesome!" Aubrey smiled from ear to ear.

"This is so great!" Ruth kissed Beca's cheek "Now I have two daughters for the prize of one!" that seemed to click something in Chloe, because suddenly the ginger had tears in her eyes and her lip was quivering looking at Ruth "I'm so sorry Chloe did I say something wrong?"

Chloe shook her head and got up to hug Ruth, who moved to let her sit on her lap and hugged her properly. Beca almost cried seeing Chloe crying heavily on Ruth's shoulder, and Ruth didn't seem to mind hugging her back and whispering comforting words. Jesse and Aubrey also seemed moved by the scene, observing in silence.

"Mom, I think you got to Chloe's sensitive vein calling her a daughter." Beca smiled "Her mom committed suicide when she was fourteen." Beca whispered cautiously. Ruth nodded and hugged Chloe tighter as the redhead cried her eyes out. Beca went to find some tissues and when her girlfriend was more calmed, she passed them to her.

"Thanks." Chloe blew her nose into the tissue and got up "Sorry." Chloe apologized hoarsely as she walked back to her seat beside Beca and in front of Aubrey.

"Are you alright?" Beca asked concerned putting an arm around Chloe's shoulders and rubbing her upper arm with her forehead against the side of Chloe's head. Chloe nodded cleaning her eyes with the tissue and looked down "What can I do?"

"Nothing…" Chloe shrugged "It's okay is just…" she composed a bittersweet smile "I haven't been called daughter in months after good twenty six years used to it. It's weird, I guess."

"Of course it is honey…" Ruth, at the head of the table between Beca and Jesse, got up and sat in the opposite extreme of the table to be close to Chloe, since she had already finished her meal. She squeezed Chloe's arm with a knowing smile "When my father died, I got so drunk I had the worst hangover ever, and I didn't leave the house for a week. And when my mother died, I beat this lovely elf up… one never gets over certain deaths."

"Hey, I'm only short because what didn't went to my height went to my muscles… and because I used to smoke." Beca murmured in an undertone and Chloe laughed slapping her arm playfully making her smile. Beca just loved seeing her smile, if it took a height joke for that then she would be a freaking goblin if necessary.

"You're such a fool." Chloe smiled tearfully at Beca.

"But I'm the tiniest one in the planet, which is good, if you're gonna date a fool better an 1'57m one than a giant fool." She winked playfully.

"True." Chloe nodded and grinned kissing her on the cheek.

"You know Chloe's not the first girlfriend you've had right?" Ruth said with a smirk.

"Isn't?" Aubrey smiled mischievously. Beca looked surprised.

"Isn't?" Beca added and Ruth shook her head.

"I think you've always been a lesbian. At least I've never seen a boy pass by. But when you were, maybe thirteen? Your father went to pick you up from class one afternoon, weird I know, but sometimes he did, and he caught you kissing a chick on a corner." Chloe's jaw fell and she looked at Beca like about to laugh -like Jesse did- while Beca blushed in embarrassment "I never thought he would be an homophobic but judging by the one he threw at you back at home with all the yelling, it was probably a good kiss." Ruth chuckled.

"Don't remember." Beca muttered embarrassed and Ruth nodded.

"Then there was this chick in San Francisco, Bethany I think, a couple years later, with whom I caught you making out in some alley out of a pub, because I partied if not more, as much as you, but probably more. I didn't care who you were with girl or dude, I only cared that my daughter had more success than I did. But anyway, I think you got laid that night, because I heard you come in like at eight in the morning" Beca blushed harder and Chloe and Aubrey laughed, while Jesse was already red with laughter "You were quite successful, I think. More than once caught bras in the laundry that I doubt were your size. Too big." Beca wanted to be eaten by Earth and Chloe was laughing so openly Beca was starting to enjoy it "Well you have boobs of course, it's just that you were a late bloomer, like me." Ruth smiled.

"Mom God…" Beca smiled a bit covering her face.

"Oh, now I remember, I brought albums! We didn't usually photograph you a lot but you had good friends whose families took pictures of you together, and also after you left I asked your friends for all the pics they had and made albums. And your granny made dozens too, fortunately, you were her little doll." Ruth said excitedly getting up "Let me go get them, I have them all upstairs in my handbag!" Beca had carried her things up to her room before. The group recovered while Ruth was gone, that was barely a minute, and then they all gathered around the coffee table of the living room with the eight albums or so that Ruth had found "I ordered them as chronologically as I could, such a cutie my doll. Look, this is the oldest! Thank God, I was quite young when I had Beca so my mom was really young too and she had this camera and she loved photography. My dad also took some, he was still alive." She opened the first album and they all awed seeing a photograph in color "You were a newborn here." Ruth smiled from ear to ear, proudly. In the photo a couple arms held a newborn wrapped in a blanket. Beca was a tiny, tiny, and very chubby baby, reddish after having just been born, and with a bunch of curly dark hair, and almost closed gray eyes without barely eyelashes. She was frowning a little with a pout, and three little fingers peeked through the blanket.

"Aw, look at that, so cute!" Chloe smiled kissing Beca's cheek. Beca smiled a little, although seeing those pictures did make her a bit emotional because she knew she wasn't going to remember a thing she was shown, but she was hiding it.

"Who was holding me?" Beca asked.

"Me of course." Ruth smiled and pointed to another picture where Ruth could be seen holding Beca, looking tired but happy, surrounded by two old people that looked thrilled "And those were my parents, Jude and Aiden. And this one here is your Uncle Clark, your father's older brother, with his wife Vanessa and their kids, your cousins Laura and Corin. They all live in Seattle, you've played with them, because Clark is a sweetheart and has been more your father than your father." Ruth pointed to a man in his late thirties holding a toddler, a little girl. He was smiling looking at the baby. Next to him was a woman that also looked happy, of similar age and in front of her a young girl that looked curious "That's your only family in your father's side. Your cousin Laura is now thirty six and is in Africa helping the poor with Doctors Without Borders. Corin's thirty two, she lives close by actually, in New York City. She's a writer."

"Wow." Beca said looking through the photos "And who's she?" Beca pointed to another photo of another woman holding Beca sitting on an armchair, and looking quite happy. Next to her was sitting a man, and they both looked quite young, not older than thirty.

"She's my big sister Molly, with her husband Ronald. They live in San Francisco. They're parents of your cousin Amber, who's twenty four, and James, who's twenty two." Ruth explained. Beca nodded, looking at the photographs with greed. She couldn't remember any of them, nor they sounded familiar, but she saw earlobes similar to hers, hairs similar to hers, and a bunch of things that marked her relatives as her relatives.

"Are we close to them?" Beca asked looking at her mother, who nodded.

"A lot. Actually, is your Uncle Ronald who found out you were in the Army, because one of his best friends is, and saw a soldier that looked a lot like me and thought it was weird." Ruth smiled "I also have another bigger sibling, the eldest, Albert. He married your Aunt Brooke and they have the youngest of your cousins, they all live in Canada, so we don't see them as much, but Albert works there and Brooke is from there so…" she shrugged "They have Harry, who's now… twenty five, I don't know what he's doing though. Then there's Megan, who's a year younger, Violet, who's just almost twenty one, and Oliver, who if he's not nineteen yet, he will be this year. He's the youngest." Beca nodded "I think the last time we all got together was a bit before your grandma Jude died, although I visited them last summer. Oh, and this one here is Jordan's aunt, Glenda. Poor woman died two months later. And her sister here, Roxette, she died the following year. Bad season apparently." Ruth shrugged and passed the page.

"Oh God Beca who knew you could be so cute!" Aubrey pointed to a photograph of Beca as a tiny baby with a lot more hair, in Jordan's arms. He was wearing an open shirt and she was pulling from his chest hair, causing him to look at her with a frown and put a hand on her hand, like he had been photographed.

"That's Jordan." Beca said, and Ruth nodded.

"Exactly. You two look very similar, although your eyes are mine. And your hair is just like my mom's when she was younger, thank God because Jordan had a weird hair." Ruth shook her head in disapproval and Beca smiled a little looking at her "Oh see? This is you with your cousin Corin! You were like five here, tops." Beca was in overalls playing with blocks with another girl that looked just a few years older. "Aw, here we made you Nick Carter's hairstyle." Beca grimaced seeing herself.

"That's horrible mom."

"But you look so cute!" Chloe awed "You seem mad almost always though."

"Because it was hard to get her to smile. I think you thought it was stupid to smile to a machine." Ruth added looking at Beca with a smirk.

"That sounds like me." Beca passed the page this time. There it was the only photograph so far where Beca was laughing. Granny Jude had her in her lap and was smiling down at the kid, as Beca, being just a toddler, held with her a big guitar, both sitting on the floor.

"I love this photograph." Ruth commented "That's how it was all the time when she was around you. Normal thing I guess."

Then everyone laughed at a series of pictures of the beach, where Beca was nude, since she wasn't bigger than six years old or so. She was still wearing short hair, and she looked embarrassed, trying to cover herself, although it was a bit for nothing. Ruth seemed to be putting some cream on her skin, and Jordan wasn't around, of course. Beca had blushed in embarrassment, like if it was a photo of her current self naked.

"That was your first trip to the beach, well we went when you were much younger, but this was the first time you could actually walk in the beach." Ruth explained "We went to San Francisco with my siblings and their children, so they made a bunch of pictures." Indeed, there were a lot of photographs of the trip, and Beca looked happy in most of them, which relieved the older Beca. In one, Beca was holding a crab with a curious look and Uncle Albert was squatting behind him, with his hands tenderly on her upper arms, talking to her. He looked quite young, with dark brown hair, big sunglasses, and a moustache, and Beca seemed concentrated "Luckily nobody lost their fingers that day." Ruth joked "You were such a bugs' girl, I don't know which weird thing you haven't brought home. Once you brought a squirrel, it was ridiculous."

"Yeah, just like the other day when we discovered we had little guests in our attic, right Beca?" Chloe smirked.

"Little? Chloe, that thing wasn't to be called a spider, that thing was a mutant." Beca looked at her and the others laughed "You were scared too." Chloe nodded stroking her neck and ear, since she had an arm around Beca's neck, and Beca leaned against her touch.


	14. Chapter 14

_Thanks a lot for the four reviewers to last week's chapter. As you can see, I'm updating a day earlier and, if you're nice, I'm seriously thinking this week I could update tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday too, because I'm on vacation for the time being_ _. This week's shout out goes to Susan, Mila and Jake_ _Love this chapter!_

 **Chapter 14: Forgotten past.**

They kept seeing photographs for a long time, all of them too entertained, even Jesse and Aubrey. It was fun to discover things about someone that was more like a ghost not three months ago. They were now reaching to photographs of teenager Beca, and the more recent the photographs were, the less quantity of them there was and more like actual Beca she looked like, although she was herself pretty much with twelve years old. They were just seeing a photo of Beca with some friend -or something else, because Ruth had just told them that was the girl Jordan swore he had seen Beca kissing- in which Beca was playing the guitar at their house with this girl sitting next to her on Beca's bed with Beca's cousin Laura sitting next to them too.

"I know this." Beca pointed to a corner of the photo of her old room, where a teddy bear was sitting on top of a drawer "I've dreamed with it."

"Oh yeah, that's Mr. Buggings, your granny Jude gave it to you when you were born. In fact I think I have it in my handbag, let me see." Ruth disappeared for a moment and came back a bit later with an old teddy bear that she smiling gave to Beca, who also smiled taking it.

"Yeah." Beca held Mr. Buggings in front of her. He sounded familiar, felt familiar, and her hands seemed to recognize him "I know you."

The day passed by quickly, and soon it was time to go to bed. They had all had dinner and said their good nights, and Chloe got into the shower the minute Beca and she stepped into their bedroom, since they had the en suite bathroom. In the meantime, Beca dressed with her pajamas and got comfortable in bed, sitting up against a bunch of pillows taking one of the big albums her mom had given her, and putting Mr. Buggings in the bedside table. She opened this album, which was one of her family, from her to cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, great-grandparents, granduncles, grandaunts, great-granduncles, great-grandaunts, and even their parents and siblings, nephews, nieces, sons and daughters. Generations and generations of Mitchells and Fannigans that Ruth had done the work to find and write down who they were so Beca knew, including their approximated dates of birth and death so Beca also knew if there was a chance she knew them. And a great part of them, Beca knew she should know them, she probably did, but her memory was blank. It was like the only things that existed prior to 2016 were bites, fragments of a movie that it was supposed to be her past. She saw she had friends from high school, and people in and out of her family she was probably really close to and had told her deep, private stuff, and she had told them those too, and still she couldn't remember a thing about any of that, which frustrated, saddened and pissed her off incredibly.

And just like that, suddenly she found herself so upset, she was crying. She pushed the album towards the feet of the bed, and covered her face with her hands as she cried, bringing her knees to her chest and hugging them as she cried onto her lap. She cried of desperation for the memories that didn't come and probably would never come, for the life she had lost, for the ones that had lost her, for the past that wasn't under her control not even to remember it, she cried of frustration, despair, and she even cried just from angriness. However, soon Chloe was out of the bathroom wrapped in her bathrobe, hair still wet, and sitting beside Beca, hugging her tightly to her chest and kissing her wherever she could.

Chloe only had to see the album to put two and two together.

"It's okay bug, nobody said you would never remember, it's just going to take a bit of time and lots of patience." Chloe pressed her lips against her hair hugging her closely "One day we'll laugh about all of this shit." She added with a hint of joke hugging Beca tighter.

It took some time, but after a while, Beca was finally calmer and slowly drifting back to sleep. Chloe pulled apart and kissed her cheek, leaning the sleepy girl back against the pillows.

"I'll be back in a second, I'm gonna get my pajamas on." Chloe whispered stroking her face, and Beca hummed while nodding a little, getting comfier under the duvet. Chloe got up, took the album, and left it on top of their chest of drawers, before opening one and pulling out a pajama to wear. Once she was changed, she moved back to the bed, and lied beside Beca, who moved to accommodate her face against Chloe's chest and put an arm around her waist, while Chloe pressed her lips against her forehead and put an arm around her, snuggling against her before soon falling asleep.

Beca got up in the morning with a throbbing headache and grunted sitting up. The room was spinning a little so she looked for Chloe, and saw her sleeping peacefully. It was still early and crazy cold, so she put a housecoat and slippers on and walked as silently as she could supporting on the walls and downstairs, towards the kitchen. She sighed pouring herself a glass of water and taking a couple pills into her mouth with it, before sitting on a stool leaning over the kitchen table to close her eyes for a bit over her crossed arms. The headaches were getting more upsetting and frequent, and that worried her a little, but when she had her revision a month ago the doctor said she was perfectly fine and she didn't want to be a paranoid.

"Morning!" Ruth greeted excitedly entering the kitchen "Are you gonna fall asleep again before eating some breakfast?" she joked rubbing Beca's back and pressing a kiss against her cheek. Beca smiled sitting straight "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, why?" Beca replied drinking from her glass of water.

"You look pale darling." Ruth frowned in concern "Mm… nothing bagels can't fix! I'm on it!" Beca smiled and watched her mother prepare breakfast until Chloe came downstairs, already dressed, like she liked to do when she knew they weren't going to be alone. In a normal day and if the heating was on, Beca was used to seeing Chloe walk in wearing panties and a t-shirt.

"Good morning." Chloe sang cheerfully hugging Beca from behind and kissing her on the lips "Are you gonna be that bad of a host letting our guest cook for you?" Chloe joked rummaging her hands through Beca's skull.

"I was uninspired to cook?" Beca tried with her best smirk. Ruth laughed and shook her head.

"It's okay, you have to try my bagels, they're the best thing in the world, really." Ruth commented.

"Alright, I'm gonna go change, I have therapy after breakfast, so I better get ready." Beca stood up feeling much better, kissed Chloe, and went upstairs.

After breakfast, Beca went to therapy as promised. She talked out with her therapist about the same things that had worried her the night before, so they took a long time to talk things out. She was using public transport, since it was better for her not to drive, and now she was walking towards the bus stop to go back home, her hands in her pockets as she walked through the snowy streets, trying to keep the little warm she had left and not die frozen. Chloe joked a lot with Frozen -starting with that time Chloe knocked against the bathroom door while Beca was emptying her bowels and sang like a kid if Beca wanted to build a snowman- but Beca didn't actually want to be Olaf.

It was then that she heard a loud noise, like an explosion, and then she saw traffic stuck. Suddenly, she didn't know what was going on with her but she felt a rush of adrenaline and next thing she knew, she was running like crazy, faster than she remembered ever running. She turned the corner, and saw it. A big truck had slid with the snow, skid in a curve, and crashed with its side against the front of a car, that had consequently crashed against the car behind it. Even worse; the truck was one of those gasoline trucks and it was leaking gasoline now. The disaster was such three avenues were paralyzed and people were just staring in shock, although Beca could already hear sirens. They wouldn't be fast enough, Beca knew, so she reacted fast.

"RUN! I'M A SOLDIER, EVERYBODY LEAVE YOUR CARS AND GET AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN!" Beca growled yelling as high as she had never yelled. She knew the explosion that could result if that exploded would be huge. She ran to the people, pushing them to move, seeing with satisfaction that they were obeying. She got people out of cars so fast she couldn't even believe herself. She even ran to shops and locals that were near and got everybody out of them. Then her eyes widened as she saw the gasoline extent under the cars, the whole corner smelled like gasoline now, and the truck driver was unconscious, a car was smashed between the truck and another car, and both drivers of the cars seemed knocked out too. The rest around them had vanished. Beca ran and jumped to reach the truck, that had fallen on its side. She climber over it and opened the driver's door. There was a man in his fifties there and she knew it was wrong to move him, that she could kill him, but leaving him there would definitely kill him. She had already seen one of the cars was starting to let dark smoke out, which meant burning, and that and gasoline was bad idea "Sir! Sir! Wake up sir, we have to go!" Beca tried to wake him up. Firefighters had arrived by now and approached Beca.

"Lady, get out of there! This situation is extremely dangerous!"

"I'm an US Army Sergeant, sir!" Beca yelled back "Come on, help me get this man out of here before this all explodes!" With the firefighters, they got to kick everybody out of the cars. A fire had already started in one of the gasoline rivers, but any explosions yet. Beca was pulling a scared kid out of a car while the firefighters dealt with her parents, and they were now running to a safe spot, the whole surroundings had been cordoned-off by police, and everyone was trying to be put in a safe spot. Then, Beca heard the distinct sound of car burning, and soon, there was a huge explosion.

"Beca's late." It was lunch time and Chloe was calling Beca for the fourth time already as Ruth, Jesse, Aubrey and Chloe herself waited sitting by their table at their house for the brunette "And she isn't picking up. Come on Bec…" Chloe dialed again.

"Holly shit!" Jesse pointed to the TV, that they had on at a low volume, and turned the volume up "Look at that explosion!"

"What the hell?" Ruth's eyes widened "That's a lot of deaths!"

"No, it says they got to evacuate everybody. A gasoline truck skid with the snow in a curve and crashed against a car that did domino effect backwards." Jesse explained getting closer to the TV to hear better and read all the things that were appearing onscreen. Chloe and Aubrey also approached "It happened half an hour ago."

"Wait a second…" Chloe started "That's like a block away from where Beca's therapy takes place."

"Oh God." Aubrey looked at Chloe "PTSD at least. We have to find her."

"No need." Beca had just entered the house. Chloe automatically ran towards her and jumped hugging her tightly "Chlo babe! You're gonna kill me!" Beca smiled hugging her back.

"Oh my God, for one second I thought…" Chloe pulled apart and looked at her thoroughly "You're okay!"

"Of course I am." Beca smiled confidently.

"So you didn't see?" Ruth asked as Beca and Chloe entered the living room, and Beca nodded turning the TV off. She could not see that twice.

"Yes I saw." Beca said "In fact I was there, right around the corner, when the crash happened. I heard the commotion and… I have no idea what came over me, I guess military instincts or whatever, but I ran over there without blinking. When I stopped to think I was evacuating the place and getting people out of cars." Beca explained sitting by the table. They all sat on their chairs too "The emergency people took too long to come because the traffic was a mess, of course, but the firefighters came when I was pulling the truck's driver out of the car. They tried to kick me out so I lied and told them I was in the Army, and they let me help get the few that were still trapped. Everybody got evacuated but I don't know how bad the wounded must be after we moved them, even though we were really careful but still…" Beca shrugged "A cop drove me here when traffic cleared a little, after they made sure I wasn't wounded. I got to hide inside of an empty local like two seconds before it exploded, with a kid I was carrying. She's fine too, just scared."

"Wow." Chloe looked at her concerned "Are you okay though?"

"Yeah, not even a scratch." Beca nodded "Firefighters came to find me and the girl after the explosion, since I had no idea when it was safe to come out, but we were fine."

"No PTSD?" Aubrey asked concerned too.

"Well, there was, but I'm fine now." Beca said, and seeing how she was looking back at her, she felt she had to elaborate "When I heard the explosion, I was drawn back to the one that I lived in the battlefield. And I remembered it, all of it. I was hidden behind some barricades with other people, soldiers, and a truck of our own passed close by, put a wheel on a land-mine, and blew away, and we blew away too. Next thing I remember, I was waking up in some kind of dark place where the Pakistani had us. There were at least a couple soldiers more with me, but I guess they died, I should probably call the Pentagon and let them know, in case they find the people who kidnapped me, the others could still be alive. You guys start eating, I'll be back in short." Beca made the call quickly, and soon she was back to have lunch.

Later, they went to play some video games. Chloe had a play station back at her house in Denver that they had brought with them, and now Ruth had already beaten Aubrey and Chloe -Beca wasn't allowed to play with her brain still a bit bad, but she was happy watching enjoying her 'old' mother beat everyone- and was now against Jesse, the two playing frenetically. Beca felt thirsty, so she went for a glass of water to the kitchen. She suddenly stopped, grabbing the door's frame, when the room started spinning around her.

"What the…" she whispered, but then, everything went black.

"Beca!" Chloe yelled and everybody looked to the kitchen. Beca was lying on the floor, convulsing and having spasms, and Chloe ran towards her "Beca!" she yelled kneeling beside her and trying to look at her face. Her eyes were barely opened and the bit she could see was white, she had foam in her mouth, and she was doing a sound like grunting or something. Chloe panicked, but Aubrey had already ran towards them and knelt beside Chloe. Jesse and Ruth stood close to them.

"Jesse, call 911" Aubrey instructed calmly "She's having an epileptic attack, it's going to be fine." Aubrey calmed them "Let's move her into a recovering position." With that, she moved Beca to her side and used her hands to keep her there "Chloe, can you protect her head please? She already hit it with the floor?" Chloe nodded and carefully held Beca's head, moving to support it on her lap. Aubrey, in the meantime, was counting the duration with her watch and also checked Beca's pulse with a couple fingers against her neck, and Jesse called Emergency.

"What can I do?" Ruth asked and Aubrey smiled calmly at her and shook her head.

"Nothing." Aubrey replied "Now we wait until the EMTs arrive or the seizures pass, whichever happens first." She looked at Chloe, who was keeping tears at bay, and lovingly holding Beca's head, stroking her face with one hand "Don't worry Chlo, whatever originated this at least is gonna get thoroughly looked through. Whatever's wrong, it won't hide anymore and it will be cured." Chloe nodded slowly, still looking down.

It took a couple long minutes, but finally the seizures and weird noises stopped and Beca laid still. Her eyes were now closed and her mouth was slightly opened, but without foam, and her breathing was slow but deep.

"Beca?" Chloe asked stroking her cheek. After a few seconds, Beca's eyes opened a bit and Chloe smiled "Hey."

"How are you feeling, Beca?" Aubrey asked smiling kindly at her. Beca coughed a bit and then breathed out deeply, closing her eyes.

"Treeed." Beca dragged her words in a barely audible voice.

"Tired?" Aubrey asked and Beca nodded a little "Alright, you rest. The paramedics are on their way." Aubrey moved Beca to lay her on her back and Beca just closed her eyes with her head on Chloe's lap. Aubrey took one of Beca's hands and squeezed it gently. Soon, the paramedics arrived and they stepped back. Aubrey informed them Beca had had a concussion after an explosion and gave them all the basic info, and a paramedic took over holding Beca's head, and with other paramedics they put Beca on a stretcher, before putting her into the ambulance. Chloe was allowed to go with them "We'll be there soon." Aubrey assured Chloe, who gave her the house's keys.

"I'll see you later." Chloe assured, and climbed onto the wheelchair.

 _She was hungry. Her stomach kept reminding her that she was hungry, sounding like if she had a growling dog inside. She walked through the dessert numb, and her uniform made her feel so hot in the middle of the day, it was incredibly warm. She removed her helmet, and passed a hand through her sweaty hair._

 _"Mitchell, put that back on. You won't like to suffer brain damage." Her superior, a Sergeant, told her passing beside her. Beca nodded and put the helmet back on._

 _Now they were shooting. Beca didn't know how it all started, one moment they were just walking, the next they had been ambushed, and she was shooting people, and they were bleeding, dying. She tried to shoot to the limbs and not to kill them, but they were trying to kill them, so what could she do?_

 _Now, she was in the infirmary. She had been shot on a leg, but fortunately it had barely touched her, only that the bullet was so dirty it had caused her an infection, and she was feverish. She looked down at her sweaty underwear. Why did she even become a soldier? Oh, right. She was starving and homeless._

 _It seemed like years had gone back. She was almost nineteen now. She was counting the days for her birthday, although she didn't know why, if she had been out in the streets for a year now and she knew she wasn't getting any presents. Like when she turned eighteen._

 _"Ms. Carton." Beca heard herself whisper hoarsely. Despite being summer in San Diego, at night it wasn't as warm. She felt cold, dirty, sweaty, like always. She had been running a bit of a fever for a few days, but the woman that slept beside her, the old Ms. Carton, had taken care of her. There in that dark alley that scared her so much the first few times, she was better treated like family than in home. Unless she had something the others could want, like money or better clothes, which wasn't happening anymore "Ms. Carton." She repeated, this time reaching a hand towards the lady. Ms. Carton had been in the streets for seven years, and they met a few months after Beca ran out. When she heard that just a few weeks earlier it had been Beca's 18 birthday, she had managed to get a muffin for Beca, and they had shared it between laughs and stories about their lives. Ms. Carton was a good woman. "Ms. Carton." She started getting angry that the woman was ignoring her. Beca could use some snuggling, even if the woman smelled bad and Beca smelled bad too, but she reminded her of granny Jude for her kindness. Beca stood up and leaned over the woman, that was snuggled inside of her old dirty coat that was still so soft. Beca shook her once. Twice. Several times. With energy "Ms. Carton? Ms. Carton!" Beca shook her harder, but the woman didn't move. Beca pulled her hair away from her old face, and her own breath caught. The woman was white as a sheet. Beca pressed two trembling fingers against her throat, and found nothing. She felt dizzy. She couldn't breathe. She felt tears in her eyes and her heart in her throat "No. No… You can't die too. You can't leave me. Ms. Carton! Ms. Carton!"_

 _"Girl!" a man that was close by looked at the old lady with sadness. He was also homeless and habitual there "She's dead! Ms. Carton died! Let her go, girl." Beca stepped back and looked at the man with tears in her eyes, her lip trembling. What was she going to do? Ms. Carton had taken care of her for the past year, what was she going to do? She ran. She started running without looking back, crying._

 _"Your father? You call that bastard your father?" she was fourteen. Her mother was drunk and drugged again, and had just slapped and laughed at her when Beca asked if her father was coming home for dinner that day. She hadn't seen him in days "He cheated on us, Rebeca! Wake up, he never loved us! He has a hotter girlfriend, and a son! A baby, cuter and prettier than you! And now they will be happy. Pack your bags. We're going to San Francisco."_

 _Moans. She heard moans and panting, and someone was taking a fist of the hair in the back of her head. She was sucking somebody's clit._

 _"Beca… oh, Beca, yes, yes…" a girl was moaning. Beca smirked against her minor lips and kissed her way back, her fingers pumping in and out of the girl quickly. Her lips found a tattoo and soon, a nipple, that she shucked. Then she went up and a girl was smirking at her. She was beautiful, brunette, green eyes, young. Beca wasted no time and kissed her hard on the lips, their mouths dancing quickly, having sex under the starts in the middle of the fields._

Beca woke up. The intense light and slight headache made her blink twice, but soon she saw herself lying on a hospital bed, the head of her bed elevated a bit, and a steady beep sounding every now and then, following her heart's rhythm.

"Hi." Light blue eyes grinned at her and Beca curved her lips into a tiny, tired smile.

"Hi." Beca replied, sounding hoarsely "How are you?"

"Good. You?"

"Good. Drugged a bit." Beca then drifted back to sleep. When she woke up again, not much had changed, except that now, the lights were fainter "Chloe?" she asked, feeling tired.

"Yes." Chloe came out of the bathroom and smiled looking at Beca. She sat on the very verge of Beca's bed and leaned to give her a peek on the lips "So you know who I am?"

"Of course." Beca frowned bewildered "You're my girl!" Chloe chuckled.

"Yes. Yes, I am your girl." Beca smiled foolishly, and Chloe smiled giving her another peek on the lips.

"What happened?" Beca asked dragging the words a little under the effects of the morphine.

"You had seizures three days ago." Chloe explained "We had to call an ambulance. They took you here, to the hospital, and made a few tests to see what had caused the seizures, and they found a blood clot in your brain, which required brain surgery. It all went home, but you've been asleep. Doctors said if you were sleeping much was because your brain needed the rest, so it's okay." Chloe stroke her face and Beca nodded slowly "Your mom just went to get us some coffee, and Aubrey and Jesse will be back soon, they went for some food."

"So I can have food and coffee? This must be heaven." Beca joked and Chloe shook her head with a chuckle.

"I should go tell your doctor that you woke up. He would like to see you." Chloe said pressing her lips against her forehead for a moment.

"You don't have to, we can keep this between you and me, nobody has to know." Beca joked.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't work missy. I'll be back in a minute." Chloe brought Beca's hand to her lips and smiled before leaving Beca and exiting the room.


	15. Chapter 15

_I'm really not satisfied with the amounts of review this story is getting, you'll probably realize in the lack of actions in the chap because even if I'm sorry I'm just very thick lately, guess I need some push… well, enjoy anyway. Shout out to Mila!_

 **Chapter 15: Mental.**

A week after her surgery, Beca was back at home. They had just arrived and Chloe had just gotten her all comfy in the sofa. She had her favorite pajamas on, the warmest, softer blanket ever -the one from Delhi- was carefully wrapped around her, her pillow and a few cushions under her head and back, Mr. Buggings beside her -sometimes Beca couldn't believe she was twenty six- and a plate of her mom's best cookies in front of her in the coffee table, along with a glass of several fruit's juice that was pretty good. Her mom was sitting on the feet of the sofa with her feet on her lap, massaging them absentmindedly so they wouldn't get swollen, like it was normal to happen after major surgery, and the woman was in the meantime singing The Beatles very softly. Chloe was reading an archeological journal sitting on the sofa next to Beca's head -their sofa was L shape and Beca's head was by the corner of the L- absentmindedly stroking Beca's hair. Jesse and Aubrey just left some minutes ago, and Beca was falling asleep.

"I'm going to make dinner." Ruth announced, and Chloe smiled at her.

"Alright, thanks. Let me know if you need help." Chloe said. Ruth left and Chloe left the archeological journal on the coffee table before leaning over Beca and smiling at the sight. The brunette, although paler than normal, was practically buried in the blanket, and her nose was nudged against Mr. Buggings. She had a small bald patch on her head covered with a bandage, and the woman looked angelic sleeping. Chloe couldn't help but smile pressing her nose against Beca's cheek stroking it with a curved finger, before kissing her on the cheek "Rest bug." Dinner was fun. Since Beca wasn't usually too hungry, Chloe had found out the perfect way to motivate her. "Gulp." Chloe smiled seeing Beca gulp the spoon of soup she had just given her "Now kissy." Beca was already leaning forward to get her peek on the lips, and after it happened, another spoon of soup came "That's my girl!" Beca seriously was a kid when sick, and Chloe didn't mind one bit. Beca even got Ruth to tell her a tale in bed, and Chloe to sing her a song and tuck her in, both woman covering Beca in kisses. And Beca had never been happier, Chloe could tell. She was the most smiley person who just had surgery Chloe ever met, and Chloe understood the poor girl had never felt so cared and gotten so much attention, except maybe when they were in Delhi, but even then, they weren't as close as to enjoy so much. Beca had spent years being a soldier treated roughly, years treated roughly by the streets, and before, years treated roughly by parents that showed her no love.

"You really have to go?" Beca pouted hugging her mother two weeks after the surgery. Ruth smiled hugging her back.

"Of course munchkin, I have a class to give tomorrow. But hey, I'll be back for spring holidays! Or maybe Chloe and you can come!" Ruth grinned seeing Beca smile, and pulled her cheeks lovingly "I love you. Talk soon, alright?"

"Okay." Beca accepted with a nod "Be an awesome teacher to those bastards." She joked with a smirk.

"I'll be back in an hour tops, depends on traffic." Chloe said kissing Beca, who once again was comfortable on the sofa "Take a nap and I'll be back sooner."

"Great." Beca smiled. Indeed, Beca fell asleep shortly after, and when Chloe came Beca was still sleeping, so Chloe smiled looking at her and sat beside her head, waking her up with light slaps "Five more minutes…"

"All you want babe, I was just wondering if you wanna cuddle?" Chloe whispered and Beca smiled with her eyes closed and nodded, so Chloe moved and carefully put Beca's ass on her lap and her head against Chloe's chest, surrounding her tiny body with her arms protectively, also assuring the blanket covered her properly, and putting the feet on the other part of the 'L' that the sofa made, pressing her cheek against Beca's forehead.

Chloe looked down and felt like melting, seeing how Beca looked like a sick baby snuggled against her, so Chloe started singing softly until she fell asleep. Beca's hungry stomach woke her up a while later, as she felt the growling of her stomach against her own body. When she woke up, however, Beca was still asleep in her arms, pretty content, and when she tried to move, Beca frowned a bit and hugged her tightly, mumbling something.

"What did you say, babe?" Chloe asked stroking her cheek tenderly.

"Don't go." Beca repeated opening her eyes a little. Chloe smiled and brushed a hair away from her face.

"But you're hungry." Chloe pointed out.

"But it's not an emergency. I want you here." Beca pouted talking like a kid. Chloe chuckled.

"Let's do one thing. You come with me to your observation place and while you sit there I make dinner, and then we can sit together and eat a bit, get into our PJs and head upstairs and snuggle in bed. Does that sound nice?" Beca thought about it for a second and then nodded.

A few days later, Beca was still feeling somewhat dizzy and tired, but she took it easy. She was starting to think whether she should contact her father, try to find him and the family he had now, or just completely forget about his existence. But what was going to be the plan exactly? Was she going to try and get back in touch with him, connect with a family that somehow she guessed it was hers too even though it didn't feel like it, or was she just going to bury his existence and everything related to him?

For now, however, she was trying not to worry with that matter. She had Chloe taking good care of her and Aubrey was also there a lot, and Jesse, so it was good and she was quite enjoying the great amount of attention she usually didn't have for anything, which was even better.

That day, she was starting to get her brain back to work, which included the possibility of going back to reading at least, because Chloe wouldn't allow her to play video games, as much as she tried.

"Come on Chlo! just five minutes! Not even GTA, I'll play something calmer, like Angry Birds!" Beca was trying to convince her yet another time, while Chloe was busy painting her nails.

"Not gonna happen elf." Chloe smirked not looking up from her nails. Beca stared at her in defeat for a moment and then she raised her eyebrows suspiciously and started smirking slowly.

"And… not even if I let you paint my nails?" Beca suggested looking at her, sitting next to her on their sofa with her feet on it in front of Chloe. The redhead stopped painting the nails of her hands for a moment.

"Turquoise?" Chloe asked and Beca bit her lip. Having her nails turquoise, really? She didn't know if she was willing to sacrifice that much for a game.

"Alright." Beca gave up with a nod. Chloe smiled and Beca was pretty certain that was it, she had won, and started smiling when Chloe's face started rising up, her eyes moving to look at hers, and then Chloe grinned.

"Mmm…" Chloe started and Beca looked anxiously at her "I'm sorry baby." Beca sighed and Chloe patted her feet tenderly "I just can't let you overwork your brain so much so fast. We don't know how bad it could've been… I'm just looking out for you."

"I know…" Beca shrugged and sat straighter hugging her knees "So what are you painting your nails for?"

"Nothing in particular." Chloe shrugged "Like them in colors." Chloe added, and moved to kiss Beca on the lips. Beca captured her lips and deepened the kiss, moaning onto it when Chloe put a hand on her chin and brought her closer to her. Beca moved to sit on her lap without separating their lips, and put a hand behind Chloe's head, kissing her deeply as Chloe's hands went to her hips pulling her closer.

. . .

When Chloe woke up, she found the room darker, as the night was almost there, and she was lying on her side, on cushions on the floor, covered with the Delhi blanket, nude. She felt a body against her back and smiled closing her eyes and intertwining her fingers with the hand that was against her belly, pressing her closer to Beca's body, that hugged her from behind. Chloe had thought that she would always be the big spoon, since her body was bigger, but Beca had taken the task almost always, and Chloe loved it. Also, the smaller girl was impressively strong and Chloe loved the feeling of that monkey hugging her so tightly even when sleeping.

"Good morning gorgeous." Chloe heard Beca whisper against her back, and smiled rolling to face her, her hips pressing against Beca's a smile welcoming her as her hand brushed away a lock of hair from the brunette's face and her lips found hers.

"Good morning shorty." Chloe replied after a quick, but deep, kiss, pressing herself against Beca until the brunette rolled to lie on her back and Chloe leant over her kissing her again. Beca suddenly snored and Chloe frowned "What?" she asked confused as Beca smiled.

"So… having sex on the floor fits as a light brain exercise, right?" Beca asked, and Chloe laughed.

"You're clearly much better! Yay!" Chloe joked, and this time Beca laughed hugging her close. Chloe smiled against her chest, just loving the feeling of her vibrating body against her, making the sound she loved the most in the world.

They laid in silence for a while, just cuddling and Beca nervously playing with Chloe's red hair, both too comfy to move. Then, Beca cleared her throat.

"I want to meet the man who abandoned me." Beca whispered. It was a serene voice and Chloe could feel she was talking in serious, that she had really thought about the topic.

"Are you sure?" Chloe asked with concern in her voice "He left you, Bec…"

"I know." Beca nodded, gulping before fixing her eyes in Chloe's "But we all make mistakes, and what if he has changed? What if he is this perfect man who realized how much he screwed up and is sorry?"

"What if he hasn't?" Chloe inquired, with a loving tone of voice as she caressed her chin.

"Then I guess it won't be a surprise." Beca raised her eyebrows and bit her lip. Chloe nodded sadly.

"Okay. Then I'll go with you to Seattle."

"Really?" Beca smiled "You don't have to."

"I know, but I want to." Chloe smirked "We are going to Seattle, and we are going to find him, and see what kind of man he is."

"Maybe I'll meet my step brother, Robert." Beca shrugged meeting Chloe's gaze.

"Maybe he's in the mob." Chloe suggested with a kidding smile.

"Maybe! Or maybe he's a terrorist."

"Or a rock star!" Beca laughed.

"Maybe…" Beca moved to sit up, moving Chloe to sit in front of her too.

"Do you think you are the unluckiest person there is?" Chloe whispered hugging Beca's hips with her legs and surrounding her with her arms tightly.

"Nah" Beca smiled "I got you."

"That's not luck. I'm too touchy, super affective, and I'll cry if a puppy gets hurt in front of me."

"That is luck. Because, if we were both walls, we'd crash constantly. And if we were both teddy bears, we'd always be crying." Beca explained hugging her close "I love how you are. Every bit of it."

"I love how you are too." Chloe replied, her lips pressing against her neck "I'm so glad you're here with me."

"Where else would I be if not wherever with you?" Beca whispered, hugging her tightly "Thanks Chloe. You're the best."

"I get good inspiration." Chloe murmured, enjoying the embrace as she drifted off to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

_sorry for the delays, all schedules, explanations, and stuff is in my blog justapointinthebechloe_

 **Chapter 16: Strangers.**

As the days went by, Beca was feeling better and stronger. It was like waking up from a nightmare, not being dizzy anymore, having more and more control of her brain's activities, not having to worry she wouldn't be able to lift heavy things, and not having to worry she would faint from pure exhaustion. Chloe was usually very busy with the University, since even if she wasn't officially there teaching yet because September wasn't there yet, she had discovered the big libraries the University had and came home a couple times per month with so many books in her arms Beca had to laugh seeing her try to lock the main door of the house while stabilizing at least six big books with her arms.

Beca's activities usually resumed to walking around the city, studying so she was advanced when she went back to University the following September like she had decided to do, and helping Jesse and Aubrey with wedding preparations, that usually resumed to voting things, since the couple sometimes had impossible disagreements.

Since her seizures, her memory had suffered a stepping back and she had stopped remembering long forgotten things about her life, and sometimes she forgot tiny things like where they put one thing or another in the house, but nothing that made her too anxious.

She had gotten to figure out the exact address of her father's house in Seattle after a long search in her bedroom and then she went downstairs to find Chloe sitting reading on the sofa, and approached her behind her back, her hands quickly finding her shoulders and a smile appearing in her face as she started massaging her shoulders.

"Mmm…" Chloe moaned inclining her head back "That feels good."

"Yeah?" Beca smiled leaning to kiss her in the lips "I thought my lovely girlfriend deserved a little award…"

"What have I done?" Chloe asked closing her eyes while Beca's lips traced her neck.

"Your newest has been wanting to come with me to Seattle." Chloe smiled and let Beca move to sit on her lap, book long forgotten, as Beca grinded against her and kissed her passionately.

…

They stepped out of the airport in Seattle one cold morning that reminded them where they were, one of those places were summer doesn't exist, compared to a place like Delhi. Beca and Chloe carried their suitcases to a taxi and soon they were organizing everything in their hotel room. Beca was actually really nervous, thinking she was going to meet her father and all the possibilities, good and bad, that doing so could have.

"He lives here?" Chloe asked Beca, unsure, as they were standing in front of a big Victorian house near the woods. Beca's dad seemed to own a whole land.

"Yeah." Beca nodded nervously.

"Does this place ring any bells?" Chloe asked looking at Beca, who shook her head after looking nervously at her. Chloe curved her lips forming a warm smile "Don't be so nervous babe, it will be all alright."

"I hope so. I don't even know…" Beca huffed.

"Well, there's just one way to figure it out." Chloe smiled and reached a hand, pressing the doorbell button.

After a few seconds they heard yelling inside.

"I'm going! I'm going!" a young boy yelled. The door opened and a teenager appeared with a questioning look. Gray eyes Beca had seen before in her dreams saluted her, and she blinked surprised seeing how much the boy looked like her. Chloe took matters into her own hands and grinned with her own cheery self, offering her hand to the teen.

"Good morning! I'm Chloe Beale, and this one here is Beca. She's very shy, forgive her. We're looking for an old friend, mister Jordan Mitchell? We were told he lives here." Chloe said nicely, and the boy nodded slowly and looked back.

"Dad! Some girls say they're friends of yours!" the boy yelled back. Chloe smiled and nodded as she held Beca's sweaty hand before the brunette had a chance to run away.

"A minute!" a deep male voice sounded from somewhere inside the house.

"So he's your father?" Chloe asked the boy, who nodded nervously.

"I'm Robert. Robert Mitchell." The boy said, and Beca felt her heart get smaller.

"Robert, uh?" Chloe smiled "is a beautiful name, and you look like you're in Harvard at least, all the good ones go there." She was trying to get the boy to confirm them his age. Robert blushed.

"I'm… 15. I go to middle school here." He murmured. Chloe nodded with a smile squeezing Beca's hand as the brunette's heart shrank a little seeing the confirmation that her father had cheated on her mother. Beca was just twelve years old when Robert was born. Like for magic art, Jordan appeared by the door. He was mostly like Beca remembered him, tall, man, a bit less thin than in her memories, and with more white hair between the brown.

He stared at them for a second, and looked them up and down, in silence. Robert observed curious and Jordan put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him a bit.

"Son, please go to your room, and in your way there tell your siblings not to come to the living room unless they really have to. Your mother and I have important things to talk with these ladies." Robert smiled, nodded, and ran away.

Beca looked at him with watery eyes. Jordan was so warm and kind with him, using such a nice voice it was hard to see him as the same man that had been so cold with her in her nightmares. Jordan stood in front of them all serious and fixed his eyes in Beca's, while Chloe stared at Beca unsure.

"Babe… we can leav…" Chloe whispered by her ear.

"It's okay." Beca interrupted in a whisper and then cleared her voice to have it stronger for her sperm donor "So you're the man who abandoned mom and me."

"Beca." Jordan said "It's been so long." He seemed to not have listened to her.

"You decided to leave." Beca said "And never even tried to find me. I just came to see it was true…"

"Come on in." Jordan moved to let them in "I'll introduce you to the family."

If it wasn't because Chloe was encouraging her, Beca would've never entered that house too luxurious and neat for her liking. But they entered and Jordan walked with them into the glamorous entrance. Soon, they reached a big living room with a big sofa and decorations here and there. Beca knew the living room alone probably cost more than half of her entire house.

Jordan was wearing elegant pants, shining shoes, and a neat sweater that made him look so sophisticated, Beca had to go back to her own memories for a bit to remind herself she was, in fact, related to that man. He was just so different from her, she liked more humble stuff for starters, not that whole 'I'm a rich bastard' vibe.

"Please." Jordan guided them to sit on a sofa. Chloe and Beca sat together and with intertwined hands over Chloe's knee, and Jordan left for a moment "I'm gonna go find my wife and we'll be right back. Get comfortable, please."

"So now what?" Beca asked looking at Chloe "What do we do?" she was talking in fast whispers, nervous.

"Now we sit here calmly and wait until they come back." Chloe smiled at her and gave her a quick peck on the lips "I'm very proud of you, you're doing great."

"But Chloe… what are we gonna talk about? How he cheated on my mother? How he abandoned me when I needed him? How he came make his perfect own family and forgot about us? About me?" Beca frowned and Chloe caressed her chin.

"Yeah, that would be something." Chloe nodded sadly.

Shortly after, Jordan re entered the room followed by a beautiful woman that could be in her fifties although she looked very young. She looked a lot younger than Ruth, but Beca didn't think they had such an age gap despite the appearance. She was a snob, dressed all elegant and sophisticated and Beca thought the woman was repulsive already. So unnatural and Barbie. Chloe and her stood up and Beca tried not to throw up at the fake super polite smile the woman gave her, as they shook hands.

"Rebeca Mitchell, such a pleasure to meet you, finally. I'm Jillian Mitchell, Jordy's wife." _Jordy?_ Beca was definitely very close to throwing up. The woman was tall and you could see the ginger was completely fake, her brown eyes scanning Jordan as if he was a sexy naked model, and her leopard and pink clothes combined so weirdly.

"Hi." Beca simply said "This is my girlfriend, Chloe."

"Hi!" Chloe smiled nicely at them but the woman ignored her and sat far away. She was probably homophobic.

"Uhm…" Jordan eyed Chloe carefully and sat with her wife, and Chloe and Beca sat down too. Beca and Chloe exchanged a nervous look and sat together, Chloe holding between her hands one of Beca's hands.

"So you left." Beca said "Is this what, your perfect awesome family?"

"It is." Jordan shoot Beca a hard look and nodded "And yeah, I left. Your mother was a hurtful person, drunk woman, it was impossible to be happy with her."

"I know, but I am your daughter, Jordan. What about me? You never thought of me? taking me with you?" Beca was already getting angry at him.

"Beca, you needed your mother and I figured once I left she would fix herself up and be a good mother for you. Plus, she treated you well."

"Well?!" Beca's voice raised.

"Calm down young lady. We don't yell at this house." Beca glared at Jillian and then fixed her eyes in Jordan as if she could kill him.

"Mom abused me, hurt me, caused me injures and you never even tried to see it. You gave me your back."

"Beca…" Jordan started.

"No. Come on Chloe, coming here wasn't a good idea. This man is a jerk." Chloe and Beca started to leave when Jillian got furious and got up in front of Beca, not allowing her to keep going.

"Apologize to your father and don't you dare to insult my husband. Even less here at our house." Jillian said and Beca smirked.

"Go to hell, Jillian." Beca said simply and pushed her aside.

"You bastard, don't you dare come into this house ever…!" Beca cut Jillian's yelling by shutting the door close as Chloe and her left the house.

"God." Chloe stared at Beca "What are we gonna do?"


	17. Chapter 17

_I AM BACK! Okay so a lot of shit happened, you guys deserve to know. In short, I failed three subjects at University, it was my father's one year anniversary of death, some family shit happened, a friend that's more like a sister almost killed herself and a lot of stuff going on with someone I deeply care about. All in this same month. And May was also crazy as fuck, but well, I'm very very sorry for the absence and now I'm in my summer holidays so even though I'm busy with two jobs and studying, I'm gonna do all I can to update much more frequently, I feel awful for not having done so. My apologizes. Lots of love!_

 _This chapter is rather tiny, but there wasn't much to tell in this one. The next one, I feel is gonna be bigger, have yet to finish it. This one, I finished at now is 3.20 in the morning. Enjoy! No trigger warnings required. I think all the reviews are answered (the ones that haven't are because there were things about if there was a new chap up so that's already late) and if I didn't answer you let me know!_

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Alien.**

"That man is an asshole, and his family? Don't even get me started." Beca was ranting around the house of Jesse and Aubrey, as the couple to be married sat on the sofa with Chloe staring at the brunette with sadness "That woman is such a bitch! Seriously! What did he even see in her? Where is that bitch better than Ruth? Uh? Where?" Beca's voice was high pitched by then. She had been ranting since the airport.

"So father's a bastard, wife is bitchy boss, and kiddos know nothing about anything." Aubrey whispered to Chloe to check if she was understanding the thing, and Chloe nodded.

"…I don't even know what I expected!" Beca kept walking in circles around the living room "Can't believe I come from that thing, I'm a complete other world, for starters I would never abandon my kid with a drunken woman, and I would never lie to my new children, and I would never marry such a bitch!" she slapped the wall breathing heavily and Chloe approached her carefully.

"Okay, let's stop for a minute, white flag." Chloe kissed Beca's hand and gave her girlfriend a hug, rubbing her back as Beca just let Chloe hug her without complaining, only shivering a little when Chloe's hands went over Beca's scars "It's okay, your father is an ass and you're nothing like him, okay?" Chloe took her face between her hands and gave her a peck on the lips "You're a wonderful human being. He chose his life, his burdens, and made his own mistakes, and that's not your weight to carry, you're not responsible, you're not his mother to take care of him."

"Yeah…" Beca nodded and breathed deeply "I'm sorry… can we eat?"

Beca was grumpy during the rest of the lunch, and went home early while Chloe stayed to help with other wedding preparations. Beca went home and got inside the bathtub to enjoy a bath and see if that relaxed her a little. Seattle had left her too tense for her liking. Then after a while, Chloe came into the house and into the bathroom.

"Okay, move." Chloe said removing her clothes and stopping to get into the bathtub where Beca was. Beca looked up confused but moved to let Chloe sit behind her, and then lean against her chest while Chloe surrounded her tiny body with her arms and kissed her on the shoulder, and the covered in scars back of the ex soldier "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours, Becs?"

Beca looked sad and lost, staring at the other side of the bathtub, a hand absentmindedly rubbing Chloe's arm around her chest, and a knot forming in her throat. She noticed Chloe's kisses against her neck, her shoulder, and suddenly she felt the need to run. So she got on her feet, and to a bewildered Chloe, stepped out of the tube, putting her coat around herself and walking to the living room, opening the window and supporting on the frame, trying so hard to take a breath that just wouldn't come. Chloe followed maybe five minutes later, even if to Beca it seemed like a lifetime.

"Beca" the brunette heard Chloe loud and clear, but was too busy heaving and trying to breathe to care about what the redhead was doing, to be honest "Baby…" Chloe whispered realizing of what was going on and putting her hands on Beca's shoulders "Come, sit." Chloe helped Beca sit down on the bed and Beca leant forward, as Chloe, worried sick and with a frown marked on her face, sat beside her and rubbed her back, whispering soothing words of comfort "It's gonna be okay, I'm here for you. I promise everything will be better soon, like always."

Beca grabbed forcefully one of Chloe's hands and held it between her own clammy ones, supporting her cheek on it, and Chloe noticed her hand soon got wet, and a contained sob escaped Beca's lips, and Chloe just embraced the brunette and held her tightly against her chest.

It took a few minutes of contained noises, sighs and heaving, but at the end, Beca calmed down between her arms and her panic was substituted by an impressive feeling of calmness.

"It's my fault." Beca said, at the end.

"What are you talking about, Beca?" Chloe said bewildered, kissing her hair and stroking her back.

"Everything. It's all my fault, Chloe." Beca pulled apart and looked at Chloe, staring right at her eyes, while Chloe felt something sink inside of her as she saw the pain in Beca's watery eyes, seeing a woman that was usually so strong break down had such a tragic component "My parents were fine until I was born, and then I screwed everything up, my mother became an awful person, and my father, he left." Beca breathed deeply and bit her lip "Ms. Carton died because I wasn't there to take care of her like she took care of me. People in the army… they're dead because I wasn't good enough. And you almost died too, because I wasn't there either and…"

"Stop." Chloe said, ever so gently "Baby, it's none of your fault. None of it. Your parents, they didn't work together, and they would've realized sooner or after, it just so happened to be after you, precious baby girl, came into this world. Your mother became an alcoholic out of her own choice, adults make their own choices Beca, and you have nothing to do with it. Ms. Carton, whoever she was… well, if you weren't with her, I'm sure you were doing very important things, and it's not your fault. Look at me, I wasn't there when my mother killed herself or my father died, either…" her voice broke a little there "but that wasn't our fault. We were out doing other things that were very important in the moment too. We were out surviving, baby. You being with me or with your Army pals… I'm sure it wouldn't have change things, if anything, you would've gotten hurt too."

"How are you so sure?" Beca asked and Chloe almost felt like smiling, giving her a quick peck on the lips.

"Because someone as good and heavenly as you are, my little angel of guard, could never do anybody any harm just like that. Not innocent people." Chloe whispered "And because there's a power greater than us, honey… we can't control the universe. We can't keep the people we love from suffering, and we can't avoid great damages to happen, because the world keeps turning and we can't control what happens in it. But we can kiss the wounds to make them better, we can hug each other against the waves, and we can try to keep surviving. Together."

It took a few seconds of silence, but at the end, Beca nodded, and relaxed between her arms again.

"Don't leave me." Beca said "Don't be someone else who leaves me."

"I won't, I promise." Chloe sniffled "But don't you leave me either, alrighty?" Chloe hugged her tightly.

"I won't. I'm here to stay."

"Good. Because missy, we're in this together, okay?"

"Okay."

They lied in bed, in a comfortable silence, together. Chloe played with Beca's hair, and the smaller woman enjoyed the feeling of a body pressed against hers, her fingers intertwined with Chloe's over her own belly.

"God, I'm so sorry…" Beca whispered suddenly "I'm here moping about shitty past I didn't even remember until so short ago and your brother died in a car accident, you found your mom's dead body after she killed herself, and your dad just died. I'm so selfish, I'm sorry." Chloe smiled kissing Beca's cheek.

"It's okay honey."

"Really?" Beca moved to stare at her eyes intently, like if she was trying to see something hidden "I mean, I know we haven't spoken too much about that, and between my shit and stuff, you really haven't had much time to process… how are you doing?"

"I'm good. As long as you're good and next to me all healthy, I'm good." Chloe smiled kissing her on the lips, and Beca smiled into the kiss.

"Well I plan to be here for much longer, with you." Beca said hugging her closer. She enjoyed her company too much. Just lying there, hugging each other. That already meant so much to her, she wouldn't change it for the world.

"Good." Chloe said stroking Beca's cheek lovingly "I love you so much Beca. I don't know what I'd do if you…"

"Don't even think about it babe, I'm here. And I'm okay. You help me be okay." Beca stated. Chloe nodded.

A few seconds of silence passed again. It wasn't an awkward silence, it was a comfortable one, in the most pure style, 'if what you're gonna say isn't better than silence, then don't say anything'.

"I miss them like crazy. I wish they could've met you, they would've loved you so much…" Chloe confessed slowly, lowering her voice. Beca nodded and moved to kiss her cheek lovingly, while rubbing her other cheek "But life moves on. Things come and go and at the end we're still standing, right?"

"Right." Beca nodded "I would've loved to meet them too, though. I feel like such an alien in my own family and somehow I feel like I would've fit so much in yours…" Beca blushed and Chloe giggled, which was music to Beca's ears, hugging her closer, tighter "And I wish I could've had a better family only so you would've had, not substitution because no one will ever substitute them but… you know, a second family. Something comforting."

"Don't worry sweetie." Chloe said, pressing their foreheads together "You are my family Beca. I don't need you to have your own awesome one, just with you I have more than enough. You can be my family, and my whole world, if you want."

"Good thing I want to." Beca smiled, brushing their noses together in the way to kiss her deeply. Somehow, the rest of the world stopped and the only thing that Beca knew existed for sure were Chloe's lips against her own, their own bubble keeping them safe and with their feet a bit more in heavens that on the ground, and everything could be okay again.

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	18. Chapter 18

_Hi! Sorry I took a while to post again! Life got in the middle and I've been busy but being busy gave me a bunch of ideas for the chapters so now they're being written quite faster ;D_

 _So I wasn't originally going to take the story this way, it seemed too predictable for my liking, but my ex gave me the idea and I've been toying with it for quite a long time until I've decided it could be an interesting way to introduce another part of the story that I was exploring how in hell I could introduce. I hope you all like it, kudos to the person who gave me the idea ;D_

 _Thanks a lot for the reviews! I love you're loving it. To the "guest" who asked if I had really put a new chapter, yes I had. Check again since it can sometimes take a few hours to refresh even more since I had to erase my note that was as chapter 17 and upload the real chapter, so that might be the problem. Also remember that I can't answer guest reviews as fast as I'd want to, only in the next chapters, so if you have that kind of doubts, better not ask (I don't mind at all if you do, but I think it's really a waste of your time, since you won't get an immediate reply) and just refresh and if the problem persist, wait for the next chapter, and it most likely will have been resolved ;D_

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 **Chapter 18: Old friends.**

Months passed by rather fast and before Beca knew it, everything had changed into some other normality that, however, still seemed more alien to Beca than normal. The summer passed, the classes at the University started, and that helped to keep everybody busy, not to forget Aubrey was also busy at the hospital, and she and Jesse were also incredibly stressed out with the wedding planning, in which Chloe and, reluctantly, Beca, were collaborating.

"Come on, you're both beautiful." Beca was bored as hell, sitting on a bench of a dresses store in downtown, while Aubrey and Chloe ran here and there picking their possible dresses -Chloe and Beca were bridesmaids, while Jesse's brother Milan and his best friend from University Benji were the groomsmen- and asking Beca for an opinion every ten minutes. They had been at it for like two hours and Beca had long ago picked up an elegant one piece suit that they had convinced Aubrey to let her wear because it made her so sexy Chloe forgot how to speak for five minutes and Aubrey had all too much fun with it.

"You've said that about the last five dresses!" Chloe complained from inside one of the dressing rooms that were in front of Beca.

"That's because it's true! Honestly Chlo, you could be wearing construction's overalls and I would still find you the most beautiful woman on E…" Beca's mouth forgot brain's orders when Chloe came out of the dressing room wearing a beautiful blue dress that was just incredible. Beca's eyes widened as they scanned her girlfriend from head to toe, babbling incoherent noises, and Chloe smirked proudly.

"That" Chloe stressed the word "was the reaction I was looking for."

Beca, still unable to talk, got up approaching her half closed fists to her mouth, staring at Chloe. Aubrey laughed from inside one of the dressing rooms.

"I want to see what made the Beca Mitchell speechless!" Aubrey giggled getting out of the room and staring at Chloe "Oh my God Chlo, you're stunning! I think we found the one." Chloe closed her eyes with a satisfied smile and her hands on her hips, and opened her eyes looking at Aubrey and dropping her jaw.

"Aubrey…" Beca whispered looking there too.

"You guys like it?" Aubrey said with her hands on her hips. Chloe giggled and ran to her, hugging her.

"Talk about _the_ one!" Chloe squealed. Aubrey and her squealed like hormonal teenagers for a moment before Aubrey gestured towards Beca to join the hug, and Beca ran to them too.

"And this, ladies, is how you prepare your women." Aubrey grinned happily a bit later, when, already changed, they were leaving the store.

"We should go celebrate" Chloe said.

"A beer sounds great!" Beca added, reaching Chloe and giving her a kiss right on the mouth.

"Beca?!" before Beca could look at who was calling her, a voice that she didn't recall knowing, a hand gripped her shoulder and turned back, before giving her a resounding slap on the cheek.

"Oi!" Chloe and Aubrey yelled at once.

"Back off!" Chloe pushed a blonde lady away from Beca, who, astonished, rubbed her cheek until her military instincts kicked in and the confronted the woman, stepping forward.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You're slapping a Veteran here!" Beca yelled with accusatory eyes.

"Oh, I know pretty well who I just slapped, Rebeca Mitchell, don't pretend you don't know me!" the woman, pretty angry, yelled at her.

"Mom!" A young boy, he wouldn't be older than ten years old, ran towards Beca with the biggest grin and hugged her tightly. He was tall and his head reached Beca's chest. Beca stood awkwardly and her eyes widened looking at Chloe and Aubrey, who stared astonished at Beca.

"Well" the unknown lady put her fists on her hips, expectantly "aren't you gonna hug your kid? It's been a year, Beca! We had no idea what happened to you! And then I see on the news you're back, and you're not picking up your phone, and you're not calling us or coming and we were worried sick!" she slapped Beca's arm.

"Yeah mom where have you been?" the boy asked Beca. He was tall but with childish appearance, big cheeks, brown eyes, and blonde hair. Beca stared between the two and recomposed herself, pushing the kid away softly.

"I don't know you, any of you, I'm sorry." Beca said serious "Or maybe I do, I don't know! Didn't you see on the news that I've got amnesia? I forgot my entire life and now, I'm slowly putting it back together for you to come and slap me." Her eyes looked at the woman angrily "And I had to change cell phone since I didn't remember a single password or any of my information with the phone company." She added in a grunt.

"What?" The woman rose her eyebrows "Allen, come here." She grabbed the boy and put her hands on his shoulders "I'm Lindsay Matthews, and this is Allen. We got married back in Prescott, Arizona? Five years ago. This one is seven… yeah, he's a tall boy, but he's just a kid." She smiled kissing the boy's head.

"I missed you." Allen, the little boy, said with tears in his eyes. Beca was opening and closing her mouth without saying anything "Why were you kissing that girl?" he added, frowning staring at Chloe who, along Aubrey, was standing next to them looking petrified. Then, Chloe reacted.

"Come on Aubrey, let's go home." Chloe said suddenly with a tough expression, grabbing Aubrey's wrist "Beca has a few things to sort out."

"But…" Aubrey started. Beca finally snapped out of her bewilderment.

"Chloe, wait." Beca started, but Chloe and Aubrey walked fast away from there. Beca sighed strongly, looking lost and not knowing what to do, feeling increasingly trapped and frustrated, which only made her angrier and angrier, and didn't expect to be completely left alone there, with people she didn't know that claimed to, not only know her, but being her wife and son. Plus it made no sense, she wasn't married, the military guys would've told her, or her parents, or she'd have a ring. And she would never get married at twenty two, as much as she knew her life wasn't much back then, plus, if Allen was seven that meant she decided having a son was an amazing idea at twenty, which was completely nuts.

Lindsay smiled and stepped forward, tenderly stroking Beca's cheek, to which the brunette stepped back, feeling like her personal space wasn't being respected.

"Don't touch me." Beca snapped.

"You really don't remember us, don't you?" Lindsay said sadly. Allen looked between the two and composed a sad, broken expression, his eyes watering.

"What's wrong with mom, mama?" Allen asked.

"Your mother forgot about us and moved on, baby boy." Lindsay said sadly, her face dropping.

"What the fuck happened." Beca whispered "You can't come here, throw a bomb like this into my life, that by the way I was just putting back together, and then just… leave or something. You can't."

They chose a place that seemed nice and got a lot of ice cream for Allen, then sat to talk calmly.

"What's the last you remember about… well, your past?" Lindsay asked.

"Uhm…" Beca was doubtful as to whether to trust this woman or not, because at the end, nobody had known she was her wife "Why should I trust you?" Lindsay smirked shaking her head and flashed her the ring on her finger "Yeah, I don't have one and far as I'm concerned, I'm not married. Not even the Pentagon knows I'm married, and they know everything."

"Well, you are!" Lindsay frowned "Look… okay, I'll tell you what I know. We used to hang out with this street band, we were all leftovers, y'know, none of us had a family. So we were our own big family, the Rangers. We used to plow through the roads, with our motorbikes and trucks, and went to parties, had nights under the stars camping with a fire and we used to make money out of any way we could come up with, without hurting anybody, and live. We were a family and supported each other through thick and thin. We were more than best friends, we were brothers and sisters of all ages, like the kids from Peter Pan… people the society neglected and they found each other" Lindsay looked sad and cleared her throat, sighed, and continued "And the Rangers had an old feud with the Falcons, another street band, but San Diego was big enough for the both of us. I… I got laid with one of our own, Reggie. And Reggie left me pregnant with Allen here." She pointed to Allen, who just stared with curiosity, although Beca had the feeling that he had listened to that story many times. The two didn't look like they were rich, they looked normal, and Allen had eyes that revealed a kind of maturity uncommon for his age "Of course everybody helped me and the little boy. When he was born, he was the most loved one kiddo in the world, everybody gave him gifts, and we were happy. He was also overprotected." Lindsay kissed her boy's head "Reggie was one of the bosses. And together, they decided we should all find headquarters, raise the boy like he deserved, and the band matured somehow. We all got jobs, you were twenty and I was twenty five and we were lovers. We had been for a while before Allen was born, and you were always so supportive and caretaker with us… so we decided to team up and got jobs at a bar, and the whole band fixed this abandoned building like old warehouse, and got a license to live there, we all got money with our tiny jobs and put the little each gained together to survive. Those were the best times… Then the Falcons got crazy pissed off. Allen was like eight months old. They attacked us and they caught us sleeping, most of them had no time to even react, they came from the windows and everywhere, like spiders…" her voice had lowered and she put a protective arm around Allen. Beca frowned leaning against the back of the chair "You and I were awake because of Allen, and you heard the first weird sound. You yelled, 'come on, we're leaving!' and we ran for our lives. We tried to save as many as we could and yell at them to get up, but it was all too fast… they had provoked a couple big fires and we barely had time to leave ourselves. We took the few things that we could, and left. When we came back, the fire was ceasing, and we went in to see if anybody was alive. It smelled horrible, like burned bodies, and we saw some… most weren't even recognizable. So we took the few things that were useful and salvable and we left to never return. We decided we weren't safe in San Diego anymore, so we left and somehow, we made it to Prescott. There, I couldn't work anymore, had to take care of Allen since now there was nobody to stay with him. You somehow got the money. I have no idea how, you never told… but we bought a tiny scrappy apartment and we lived reasonably fine. We got married there, with the most little budget wedding in the world, you didn't even buy a ring for yourself, it was an old ring you had." She pointed to Beca's thumb ring, a normal silver ring. Beca had found some jewelry at her house and had loved that ring "It was a secret wedding, because if the government found out, they would ask for explanations about Allen, who wasn't inscribed anywhere. We educated him at home, and we all lived under fake names. You may find some info about Jude, Ella and Allen Jenkins." She snorted "Thing is, we got married thanks to somebody I knew there who had a license, and it was because we loved each other so much… also, we hoped it gave us some advantages in the future, like health care. Then you joined the military and sent us money from there. And Rebeca Mitchell it's not married, but Jude Jenkins is."

"That is far too weird, how do you explain the military knew my real name?" Beca asked after some deliberation.

"Well we only used our fake names in paperwork and state's stuff. You came from Iraq changed, and you decided that we should go back to our real names and 'do things right'. But it wasn't possible, I had a criminal record, even if the crimes were little, and plus we still had the problem that they could take Allen away if they found out who we actually were" Lindsay gesticulated in the air at 'do things right' and went on "So for the military and inside the house you were Rebeca Mitchell. For the state, we were the Jenkins. You had double life, double identity, and you somehow managed for the military to never find out. You had a blonde wig for every time you had to be Jude, and also dressed completely different for that. With the military, we had money to buy a better place, get Allen into school, and then we had a secret wedding because now you had insurance and that way Allen and I would have a better life. I got a part time job while Allen was at school. But you weren't the same and… things faded. Love, to be more precise. Well, we always loved each other, but I could tell you didn't feel the exact love anymore. I did for longer, and then when you left again, for Afghanistan, and came back, things were far too weird and we made it official. You gave us enough to live comfortably in Arizona and you left for Carson City. We remained best friends, and we remained married because it was important for money and insurance… and somehow we were always family. We got together every weekend, no matter what. For Allen, you will always be his mom too…" Lindsay hugged Allen closer. Beca could feel a headache coming, and she just leaned back finishing her coke and trying not to have a heart attack from the incredible amount of information. Chloe was so not going to like this when they went back home. And she didn't know what to do.

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	19. Chapter 19

_Rather short chapter, but only because there were things I wanted to leave for next one and didn't fit in this one so well so don't worry. Thanks a lot for all the support!_

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 **Chapter 19: The hearts ache.**

Beca had decided to bring Allen and Lindsay to her home. As she expected, Chloe wasn't home, and when she went to look for her at the future Swansons' home, she found no one there, so she supposed they had gone to take a walk or something.

"Alright." Beca said sitting on the sofa were Allen and Lindsay were, after having been pacing around the house and thinking for a while. Allen was almost asleep again "Look, I don't remember a thing of what you told me. I've had brain surgery, things happened in the army, I got kidnapped, well, a great number of things happened and you see… my memory is not very good." Lindsay nodded slowly.

"Don't worry, I heard on the news." Lindsay said "Hey, Becs, we didn't come to cause you any trouble. As I said, we're not even together anymore. But we were sort of family, and you're my best friend, and I've been worried sick, you know? And of course, the Army wouldn't tell me anything. After we separated, Allen and I moved to Carson City too. We live there now, it was becoming suspicious to stay in Arizona when people knew we were married but never saw you there. In Carson City, we kept our privacy more private. I saw you sold the house and then I got worried you had completely forgotten about us, which I see it's true… but we didn't come to bother you or intrude in your new life, we can go." Lindsay said coldly.

Beca fell quiet and the others stood to go, but Beca stopped them.

"Wait! No…" they sat again "My memories have been coming back lately, so it's probably a matter of time before I start remembering the stuff you told me, maybe not completely but maybe I'll remember something. And even if I don't… I have a feeling about you. Like my brain forgot about both of you but something inside didn't and I feel like I'd do anything for you guys. You say you live in Carson City, what are you doing in Boston?"

"We're moving here. We arrived a week ago." Lindsay said "I heard that you came here so I figured the moment we could, we should come… Allen agreed, right sweetie?" the boy nodded enthusiastically "He doesn't have many friends in Carson City so we figured, we could start over… as Lindsay and Allen Spaughton, our real names. I needed to find you so we could get rid of our fake identities once and for all, but I've been doing most of the job already. I only need for you to sign our divorce papers, that are at my place, and it's done. A friend who works at the police cleared my record and got us real papers, so that's good. And he'll be able to clear you too so you don't get arrested for faking an identity." She smiled a little and Beca nodded with a tiny smile.

"Thanks. So where do you live?"

"Downtown. I work at that dress store you were at, by the way, they pay pretty good and I already put Allen into the school here, so we don't need your money. I was just entering the store to pick something up that I left yesterday, when I saw you out, so we followed you…" Allen giggled and Lindsay smiled at him "it was this little one's idea. But it was the best one." She pinched his cheek lovingly and Beca smiled at them.

"Okay." Beca nodded "So this is what we're gonna do… the ginger that was with me, she's my girlfriend, and right now she must be flipping, so I should go find her. You know where I live, and we should exchange numbers, so I can pass by your place soon, and sign those papers and get our lives in order."

"Sounds great" Lindsay smiled as they exchanged cell phone numbers.

"I feel like I should stay closer to you guys, so I'm hoping to remember something soon and if not… well, I'll work from scratch, if you don't mind." Beca smiled. She had this warm feeling when she looked at them, like if something inside of her recognized them and trusted them deeply. And the kid's eyes brightened every time he looked at her, and Lindsay's face seemed to light up too. "I will call, I promise." Allen jumped and hugged her, and then he was crying. Lindsay smiled sadly at him and Beca at first felt awkward. She had the feeling that she wasn't good with kids, but them somehow, it was like if with Allen, she knew the manual pretty well, so it wasn't awkward at all when her arms surrounded the boy and her cheek pressed against his hair "It's okay buddy, everything will be alright. It's just weird now, but weird doesn't have to be bad, and we'll get our lives in track sooner than later, you'll see."

"Come on sweetie, we still gotta pick your bag up from the store and Beca has stuff to do." Lindsay whispered tenderly to the boy, lovingly stroking his back. He stopped crying and nodded against Beca's chest. Beca grinned at him cleaning his face with her thumbs. It was like if her fingers remembered him, where he was comfortable being touched and where he wasn't.

They stood up and walked towards the door. Beca exited with them, since she had to find Chloe. They went to the store using the Swanson's brand new car so hers was parked there. They had arrived using public transport, but Beca didn't want them in a dirty public bus.

"Hey, what if I drive you guys there?" Beca suggested and Lindsay grinned, nodding.

Beca drove the Spaughtons back to the dresses store. On the way there, Allen got them to start singing random 'driving songs' with which Beca laughed a lot. When they arrived, Beca was actually sad to leave them, but she reminded herself that it was just for a little bit.

"Well, it was a pleasure to see you two again." Beca smiled at them. Allen hugged her and she smiled widely hugging him back "I'll see you soon." Beca waved his hair.

"See you later Becs." Lindsay kissed her cheek with a grin and took Allen's hand, both walked into the store. After that, Beca got again in the car and started driving looking for Chloe. She had an idea that maybe the three were having lunch at their favorite place, a pizza place close to their neighborhood that they had spotted in the first few days of being in Boston. Beca finally saw them sitting outside the place, so she parked and ran towards them.

"Finally! Took me away to figure out you were here." Beca leaned to give a peek on Chloe's cheek -the ginger had the mouth full with pizza- and sat between her and Jesse.

"The girls were telling me about your wife." Jesse commented.

"Oh, yeah… Lindsay and I had a long talk."

"Lindsay?" Aubrey raised her eyebrows and looked at her with curiosity. Chloe just looked at them shyly.

"Lindsay is my wife. Well, technically, she's the wife of someone I pretended to be… it's a long story." Beca explained. She spent the next twenty minutes explaining them everything that Lindsay had told her and answering to their questions.

"So they're here to stay." Chloe stated crossing her arms over her chest and Beca nodded. By then another pizza had come for her and she was eating too.

"Yeah." Beca confirmed verbally "So we're closer, you know… but hey, it'll be fun!"

"I take that you're not just going to divorce her, but stay around?" Jesse asked.

"Yes, definitely. I mean, I feel like I've known them forever, you know? I think the memories will come back eventually and if not, for the way I feel around them, is worth starting from scratch." Beca said. Chloe frowned slightly "And that boy is just awesome. I mean, to him, I am his mother, I can't just walk away from that. I wanna be close, I care about them."

"How…? Beca, to you, you just met them." Chloe said.

"I know, but I told you, it's like I've known them forever. Like, I've always expected myself to be awkward around children, but with Allen? It's like I've birthed him!" Beca grinned.

"Wait, you haven't…" Jesse started and Beca was quick to shake her head.

"No, no. He was born before I was really with his mom, Lindsay had him with this guy, Reggie. And he has nothing in common with me, is a blonde brown eyed kid." Beca shrugged "He's a lot like Lindsay actually."

"So what's the plan now?" Chloe asked.

"Sticking around? I want to be a part of their lives again, get to remember them or, if not, make new memories with them. I want to go out with them and have them meet all of you and just recover the only good thing that I seemed to have before being kidnapped." Beca explained. Chloe nodded slowly and Beca frowned, reaching out to put a hand on her upper part "You told me you'd support me and still love me even if it turned out I was married or had children. Now is time for it, you're not backing off right?"

"No, of course I'm not. I love you." Chloe curved her lips and stroked Beca's cheek "I'm just wary Becs, for all we know they could've found out about you in TV, have done some research just like the Pentagon did, and be faking it all. And I don't want you to suffer more than you have, alright? So just be careful, okay?" Beca nodded and smiled, more calmed down after seeing Chloe was cool with it all.

"I will be."

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 **Please leave reviews!**


	20. Chapter 20

_This chapter took me the whole day and I'm really happy with it although my back's killing me! please be so kind to leave reviews, I answer them usually ;) I may be a bit absent from now on because I've got some exams soon, but it'll be temporary. I'm hella inspired. Thanks for the support!_

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 **Chapter 20: It all comes back to me.**

"So everything is true." Beca was speaking on the phone, pacing around her living room, with someone from the Pentagon "Well yeah I know but this still means a lot. Yeah, well yes… yes, thank you sir. Thanks, you too." She hung up.

"Well?" she heard Chloe's voice behind her.

"Their story fits." Beca replied "And it fits with my memory too. The Pentagon couldn't check most of the story, mostly because it's not in their database, but there was a fire in the headquarters like Lindsay said, and they could check that Allen was definitely born when Lindsay said and his father was Reggie just like they said. A bunch of stuff, they could confirm." Beca turned around to see Chloe and her jaw dropped. Chloe was standing there with a long red dress, red lipstick, and her beauty was so well highlighted it was breathtaking. Chloe smiled and spun around.

"Well?" Chloe repeated. Beca giggled.

"Chlo, you look fantastic babe." Beca smiled approaching her and put her hands on her hips before kissing her firmly on the lips.

"Yeah?" Chloe smiled pulling apart and putting her arms around Beca's neck. Beca bit her lip and nodded, pressing their foreheads together with her eyes focused on the ginger's lips, before kissing her again. After a quick make out session, Chloe pulled apart again "Come on, they're waiting for us."

"Let's go." Beca took her jacket and purse, and followed Chloe out of their house. They were going to a dinner with Jesse, Aubrey, some work mates of Aubrey, Jesse and Chloe, and some old friends of them too, to celebrate the incoming wedding, that was less than a month apart, set for October 19th.

"Finally!" Aubrey hugged them when they arrived to the restaurant "What took you so long?"

"Sorry Aubrey, I took longer than expected in getting ready." Chloe apologized "You look amazing!"

"You too!" the two friends smiled at each other holding hands and Aubrey introduced them to everyone, since they were the last ones to arrive "Look all these engagement presents! I didn't even know people gift things at engagements…"

"Oh shit, we had a present too!" Chloe looked at Beca sadly.

"Shit, I left it in the bedroom…" Beca face palmed herself "You know what? No worries, I'll go get it in a moment…"

"Don't be ridiculous Beca, you guys didn't have to give us anything, you're our best friends and you've been doing so much to help with the wedding, it's ridiculous." Jesse shook his head handling the girls some cups of wine he had just filled "Come on, forget about it." He grinned happily.

"But it's a lovely gift, and it took us an eternity to find it…" Beca started.

"Don't be silly. Hey, if it means so much to you, it's okay we live in front of each other!" Aubrey shrugged "We'll come get it tonight when we go home."

"That's also right…" Chloe raised her eyebrows and shrugged drinking from her wine.

"I'm gonna go get it." Beca said "It's nothing, what is it, ten minutes? I'll be right back" Beca got up quickly "look, tonight we're gonna be tired and probably drunk, and I know how these things end, we forget and postpone and before we realize you guys are in the honeymoon and the presents are still in our bedroom. I'll be here in a minute, it's no effort."

"You really don't have to Beca…" Aubrey said taking her hand affectionately.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter." Jesse added.

"Bah, for one time I manage to get a good present!" Beca laughed and Chloe smiled kissing her in the cheek.

"Okay, but don't take too long." Chloe accepted. Beca nodded.

"I'll be here in a moment, promise…"

That's all Beca remembered. Next thing she knew, she was waking up lying on a bed, a huge headache bothering her and an incessant beep like an alarm.

"Shut up…" Beca grumbled. She went to raise an arm to hit the alarm and then she realized her arm was hooked in an IV. Her eyes shot open instantly, sitting up, only to get a wave of dizziness and lay back again. She was in a freaking hospital bed, and Jesse, Aubrey, Lindsay and Chloe were around her bed, looking worried.

"Beca…" Chloe went to her quickly.

"What happened? Why does my head hurt so much? What the fuck am I doing here?" Beca bombarded panicking.

"Calm down Becs…" Aubrey said kindly "You fell off the stairs, we got worried you took so long and weren't picking up your phone and Jesse went to look for you."

"Found you down the stairs of your house." Jesse explained "Amazing gift by the way." Chloe smiled a little and squeezed Beca's hand.

"Doctor said you are discharged once you're up. You hit your head, but they said it was just a small concussion, nothing big, and you've already spent the night here so…" Chloe shrugged.

"Your head probably hurts so much because you've had brain surgery and it's a delicate place to hit, but the docs assure you're fine." Aubrey assured "And I saw your scans, it looks good." Beca nodded slowly, sitting up.

Beca then realized Allen wasn't there and looked at Lindsay.

"Where's our boy?" she asked. Lindsay smiled hearing her call Allen hers. It had been a few weeks, but after many meals together and afternoons of Beca playing with Allen, it looked a lot like the old times.

"He's with some friends of mine, I didn't think they'd let him into the hospital." Lindsay answered "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, just this big incredible headache…" Beca grunted and looked down to herself. Thankfully she had an actual pajama and not some hospital robe, but she still needed to change "Do I have any clothes here?" Beca asked Chloe, who nodded.

"Here, I'll help you out."

They went straight to the Beale-Mitchell homestead and Chloe made coffee for everyone and tea for Beca, who preferred it. Conversation started flowing with surprising ease, sitting on the living room, but Beca wasn't paying attention to any of it. For the first time in the whole year, she felt more herself than she had felt so far. It was like if a light had ignited in her brain.

"You okay?" whispered Chloe by her ear, affectionately stroking her forearm.

"Actually…" Beca nodded slowly. Now the effects of the painkillers had kicked in and she felt marvelous "I've never felt better." Chloe raised her eyebrows in surprise and Beca looked at Lindsay, who was laughing about something Jesse had said, that goof "Lindsay!" Beca called her attention and the girl looked at her. Beca smirked with certain familiarity and breathed deeply "Allen was born at the headquarters, right? Because none of us could afford the hospital in that moment, no one had insurance. So there was Riley, and Brooklyn, Natasha, Emile, and me, and we helped you deliver, right?" Lindsay's jaw practically fell to the ground. Chloe's eyes widened in realization.

"You remember that?" Chloe asked surprised.

"And that's not all I remember. That's why I have such a big headache, because the more I think, the more I remember." Beca said. Aubrey's mouth made an 'o'.

"But… how? That's impossible." Aubrey said.

"Well I don't know. Maybe it was falling off the stairs, or maybe I fell because I started remembering and got dizzy, who knows? But my fucking God I feel so me I can't even…" Beca's voice broke and she bit her lip, her eyes watery. Chloe put an arm around her and kissed her cheek.

"That's amazing babe! That's amazing!" Chloe said grinning happily.

"I…" Beca breathed deeply "There are things that are still fuzzy and blank parts but I think that's more because they're very old memories than from nothing else. I remember the Army, the training, the war, the explosion… and I remember the fuckers who got me. But I also remember my home, my mom… Allen growing up…" she gulped a sob. She felt so happy because it was like if she had taken her whole life back, but also overwhelmed and sad, and bittersweet and excited, and it was far too much, so she took a few deep breaths. Jesse smiled excited about it. Beca's face hardened "Then I remember the fucker of my father and I want to break that pretty face of his but… gosh… there was so much good too…"

"Remember that time we jumped off a bridge in the summer?" Lindsay said very excitedly after waiting a few seconds of silence. Beca giggled.

"Yeah, like it only happened once!" Beca added, and Lindsay giggled. Chloe contemplated them wondering if now that Beca remembered Lindsay, she'd leave her for Lindsay. But she said nothing as the brunette shared memories for a while, and then soon, they were alone again, going to the bed.

"You must be in heaven." Chloe commented lying on the bed next to Beca, with an arm around her hip. Beca was just grinning looking at the ceiling.

"God Chloe, I feel so… alive. So myself. I'm not some lost puppy anymore, you know? I remember passwords, and where I kept one thing or another, and Lindsay and Allen, and our friends, our band, the army, my friends… I should start writing my friends and meet again or something." Beca commented so excited she doubted she would be capable of falling asleep.

"That's awesome Becs…" Chloe smiled sincerely, reaching to kiss her cheek and contemplate her with adoration in her eyes. She loved that tiny badass brunette so much it was hard for her to believe she could love her so much. But she did. And she was honestly happy for her, so happy she felt her own chest full with happiness. But it also stung a little. Beca looked down to her and must have seen something in her eyes, cause she frowned a little.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Beca asked stroking Chloe's cheek softly.

Chloe thought about lying to her, but she saw no point in doing so. She had to be honest, open up a little and pray Beca would understand, because at the end Beca had always understood her perfectly well.

"I'm incredibly happy for you, baby, really. But a part of me can't help but wonder if, now that you remember your life, you're gonna go and be back to it, and take Lindsay back and your family…" Beca smiled a little and pulled from Chloe so they were at the same height in bed. Beca turned to lie on her side and stroke Chloe's arm softly.

"I've thought about all of it." Beca recognized "Look, Chloe, I'm not gonna lie to you. What I remember means I'm not the same person you've been with, and not in the sense of nobody it's the same person from one day to another, but in the sense of drastic different, big different. But thing is, before we met I was one person. For all these months, I've been a whole other person, a different one, and as that person I came in terms with myself and accepted the new being I was. And now it's like I know these two persons and I'm trying to become this new one that's a mix of them, like I remember before my favorite TV show was one and now it's another, before I didn't like muffins, but you do these muffins that I know I love, before I didn't particularly enjoy certain songs that now I love, and preferred others that I don't like anymore. I've got to pull and push, give and take, concede and change. And at the end, I'm not the one you knew, nor the one Lindsay knew. I'm different." Beca explained. She took Chloe's hand "I remember my family. My parents and how they were, how my house was, my granny, and the people I met on the street. That headquarter with the people there was all I knew of a family for a long time too, and now I remember loving them, losing them and mourning them. I remember happiness and loss. I remember Allen, and I can't wait to see him again because I remember the things he loves the most and I love him so fucking much and can't wait to treat him as my son again. I've missed my son. And I remember Lindsay and now she feels like an old best friend. But… what happened with you and me? living in India, meeting Jesse and Aubrey, having sex with you, and falling asleep with you, and in short, our story? I haven't forgotten any of it. I love all of it and I hold it as something very special Chloe. Priceless. And I remember that I haven't felt for Lindsay the love I used to feel for a very long time, and it cold down, the flame died, we're different persons and although I love her, I love her as my best friend. Now I know you, and I can tell what I feel for you I've never felt it for anyone else." Chloe grinned and Beca smiled giving her a quick peck "You're the cutest, most adorable, amazing human being I know. Together with Allen maybe. And you're the love of my life, Chlo. How could I ever choose somebody else over you, silly?"

Chloe giggled and pulled Beca close, kissing her deeply.

"Mm… you kiss different." Chloe commented in a whisper after a make out session.

"Different as…?" Beca asked.

"As good different." Chloe kissed her again. "Damn Mitchell, you keep getting better and better…"

"What do you say if I show you my just remembered bed skills?" Beca asked raising her eyebrows, and Chloe laughed removing her own shirt and throwing it away.

In the morning, Chloe woke up to an empty bed and went downstairs, finding Beca busy with breakfast, although she immediately looked up to Chloe when she felt her come in.

"Good morning gorgeous." Beca smiled to her "Turns out I know how to make an improved version of pancakes." She added pointing to the pan with her eyebrows.

"Nice." Chloe opined walking towards Beca and giving her a kiss on the cheek "Morning." Beca smiled turning her face to kiss her in the lips.

"So I was thinking, and since I pretty much ruined the dinner the other night, I'm gonna invite you all to dinner tonight, if they can." Beca said "You know, all luxurious place like Aubrey likes, I pay."

"That sounds very nice, but I'm sure they don't feel like it's necessary. They loved your present." Chloe said.

"I know, but still. I want to do something nice for them." Beca replied putting the pancakes on a plate.

"Alright then." Chloe nodded "Listen, I gotta go to work so call them yourself?"

"Sure! Shit I've got class!" Beca remembered university all of the sudden. The first few weeks had happened already and so far it was okay.

"No you don't, you shouldn't go to class for a few days so your head rests a little." Chloe assured kissing her "Don't worry I called your professor, explained what happened, the dean will send you the stuff." Beca breathed deeply in relief.

"You're a life saver." Chloe giggled devouring her pancake.

"Hey, there's something else I'd like to comment with you?" Beca said sitting with Chloe for breakfast. Chloe looked at her inquisitively with her mouth full of pancakes and Beca smiled cleaning some chocolate from Chloe's lip with her thumb, licking her thumb afterwards, to what Chloe's eyes widened "Sex later, now focus." Beca laughed "I was thinking of going to see my dad in the weekend." Chloe gulped.

"Firstly, since when do you call him your dad? And secondly, why? That man already proved you the kind of person he is, and now you actually remember what he was like."

"I don't know… I want to go alone and catch him alone. I need something… I don't know what yet but I feel there's more to our conversation, you know?" Chloe shook her head.

"No but if your instinct is guiding you there then…" she shrugged "go on. But Beca, be careful okay?"

"Yeah." Beca nodded "I spoke with Lindsay on the phone while you slept and I'm gonna go pick Allen to school today, take him with you for lunch, if that's alright?" Chloe stared at her curiously.

"Look, I don't wanna do like my father and just make him think he was a mistake and like he's not a part of my life anymore. He's been away for far too long and I love him, he's my son. And as my son I want him to recover his relationship with me, and know he can always come here when he needs to, or wants to, that I'll always be there. I want him to get to know you, because I love you, and I want him to love you too." Beca smiled grabbing Chloe's hand.

"Becs…" Chloe sighed and Beca frowned in concern.

"You don't wanna know him better?"

"It's not that. It's just that if I get to know him better, he'll become a part of my life too Beca, and I'll become a part of his, and since I love kids and I'm the kind of person kids love, we'll become attached to each other and you and I haven't been together for that long, imagine what would happen if we broke up." Chloe explained "Listen, I love you, you know that, and I know you love me and I know we're much more of a strong relationship than any seven months old relationship, because we've gone through so much and we lived together before being together but… maybe we're going too fast with Allen."

"Yeah… right…" Beca nodded "Well, just a lunch. Okay? That's all."

"Okay." Chloe nodded "You know I've got nothing against you him or Lindsay right? It's just… before you, I was with Karen, with whom I was for a year and a half or so. And before, it was Linda, nine months. And before it was Owen, a year. And now is you. And I want us to last, but I've had experience enough not to get my hopes too up." Beca nodded.

"Is okay, I get it." Beca smiled to give her confidence.

After Chloe left to work, Beca took her guitar, and this time her fingers seemed to recognize the cords, which made her smile. Before she realized, she had been playing animatedly for three hours, and she felt more alive than ever.

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 **Please leave reviews!**


	21. Chapter 21

_Okay I'm sorry for the delay, but the reviews have been disappointing and I just started classes again ;D bye holidays…_

 _In another note, I hope you like the direction the story is getting._

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 **Chapter 21: People change when you think you know them the most.**

Beca had been sitting in her porch playing the guitar for an hour when she heard her cell phone sound. She took it and was surprised to see the call was from Lindsay, who should be working, but she imagined it was some kind of emergency so she quickly answered the call.

"Hi Lind!"

"Becs, hi, listen, are you doing something right now?" Beca looked at her guitar for a moment.

"No, I had to take some days off because of the head, so… why, what's up?"

"Ms. Galler, Allen's teacher, called. Apparently our son got into trouble, but I'm working and can't go, so I told them you'd go…" Lindsay explained. Beca was quickly on her feet, putting the guitar inside the house, and finding clothes.

"I'm on my way Lind, don't worry. Send me the address alright?"

"Okay, but can you drive?"

"Yeah, don't worry. If anything I can always take a taxi or something. Don't worry, I'll try to talk the teacher down and if there's no convincing then I'll take Allen here."

"Awesome. Thanks Becs, give him a kiss from me?"

"Count on it!" Beca smiled and hung up.

Soon she was making her way into the school. She saw what seemed to be the secretary of the school and approached her.

"Hi, I'm here for Allen Spaughton, they called home so one of his moms came…" Beca explained "I'm Rebeca Mitchell, his other mom." The secretary nodded and pointed to the stairs.

"First floor to the right, class 24." Beca nodded.

"Thanks." Beca went there and knocked in the door before opening a bit. Allen was sitting in front of the teacher's desk, and the teacher seemed to be writing some papers. The teacher, Ms. Galler Beca assumed, looked up "I'm Rebeca Mitchell, Allen's mother."

"Hi, welcome Ms. Mitchell." They shook hands "I'm Ms. Galler, I called because Allen was caught fighting with a classmate." Beca raised her eyebrows and sat next to Allen, putting an arm around his shoulders and giving him a kiss on the head.

"Why don't you tell me what happened buddy?" Beca asked, and Allen nodded, looking sad. Beca then realized Allen had a swollen eye "Wow… where's the other kid, Ms. Galler? Who did this to my son?"

"Don't worry Ms. Mitchell. He already left with his parents. I've decided to expel both children for a couple days, so they can think of what they've done and calm down." Beca nodded and looked at Allen questioningly.

"Mom, we were in class waiting for the next teacher to come, and as I told Ms. Galler, Todd came and told me they needed one more player later in the playground because they were going to play football against another group and one of their usual players is in home sick." Allen explained, Beca nodded understandingly "I said I didn't want to play. I don't like football mom." Beca nodded "So he got pissed off. He went to the rest of the team saying they couldn't play because 'that idiot' didn't want to. So they started making commentaries and Todd came and punched me." Beca raised her eyebrows "And I pushed and he fell on his ass. That's when the teachers came and took us here."

Beca's mouth was forming and 'o' and looked at the teacher.

"Are you going to tell me my son is being expelled two days because a classmate bullied him, left half his face swollen, could've seriously hurt his eye, and my son pushed him? Are you seriously going to compare…? Have you seen his face?" Beca could feel her blood boiling raising Allen's chin up softly "His eye's swollen! And I gotta take him to the doctor now and that boy Todd what, his ass hurts a little?"

"Ms. Mitchell I understand you're angry but your son hit a classmate and said classmate did the same, so the punishment is the same. Allen should've come to me when Todd got angry and he wouldn't have been punished."

"That's bullshit." Beca snapped "No, you listen to me Ms. Galler. If a person runs another over and the other is only injured, the driver isn't as punished as if the other had been killed in the accident. Because yeah, maybe the running over is the same but the consequences aren't." Beca said as politely as she could. "My ex wife and I would like to meet with the principal tomorrow morning, first hour if possible. First I'm gonna take my son to the doctor and see what the actual damage is, because my son is not gonna be expelled not one day for protecting himself and causing a guy some pain in his ass, even less when his face is like this! And that Todd better prays my son's sight isn't at risk because if it is, I will sue them and this school." Beca got up taking Allen up in her arms like if he was a baby.

"I'll speak with Principal Harris. He's out at a meeting today, but he'll be able to receive you tomorrow." The teacher assured.

Beca soon had taken Allen to the car, and kissed him on the cheek multiple times as she put him the seatbelt.

"How are you feeling my boy, does it hurt too much?"

"Just a little." Allen said, visibly upset "Am I gonna miss the rest of the classes of today for defending myself?"

"I'm afraid so buddy. It's not okay to push a classmate, no matter what the reason is" she said sitting in the driver's seat "revenge is never the solution. But I'm gonna call your mom now and take you to my friend Aubrey in the hospital so she can take a look to that eye, and tomorrow your mom and I are gonna make sure you can go to class tomorrow. And today you're gonna spend the day with me and my girlfriend Chloe, when she's out of work." Beca said turning the ignition on "We're gonna make a barbecue and maybe we can play some play station if you don't like football, or chess, you liked chess right?"

"I love chess!" Allen said excitedly and Beca smiled while driving.

"Excellent. Then we're gonna make the best of this day and end well what started a bit difficult, and I'm gonna see if I can have dinner with your mom and you so we can talk with her about this a bit more, alright?"

"Awesome." Allen smiled.

"Okay. Now make sure you stay awake until Aubrey sees you alright?" Allen nodded, and soon, they were at the hospital. Beca had called both Lindsay and Aubrey on the way there and Aubrey had spaced her agenda a bit and had time for Allen, and was waiting for them already.

"Wow, I hope the other guy was worse!" Aubrey joked with a grin seeing Allen.

"He's not, but that's good because now maybe he'll get punished more than me." Allen smiled.

"That's the attitude son." Beca laughed following them to the consult. After a few tests and a scan, Aubrey just gave Allen a painkiller.

"Well since you've gotten a bunch of hits in the head, you know what to do." Aubrey told Beca with a little smile and Beca nodded "But don't worry too much, he's fine. I'll give you something for the swelling and normal painkillers should help with the headaches."

"Do I have to wake him up every few hours?" Beca asked helping Allen get dressed.

"No, he doesn't have brain swelling or anything. And the eye is fine, it's just the face swelling. Don't let him do a lot of mental effort for today just in case and if he feels any worse you tell me, but the scan came clear so I wouldn't worry. You know, if he can't sleep, if he throws up, or doesn't have appetite, or is too tired… whatever."

Beca nodded.

"Well, ready to go champion?" Beca smiled at Allen, who nodded too busy sucking a lollypop one of the doctors had given him "Awesome. Let's go home. See you and Jesse for lunch Aubrey? Want to do one of my famous barbecues now that I remember how to."

"Sure, I'll be out around one though." Aubrey said.

"It's okay. See you then!"

Mother and son left then to go home and, deciding play station and chess qualified as too much of a mental effort, Beca sat Allen on her lap with her guitar, and taught him a few easy things, which he enjoyed. After a bit, though, Allen was tired for all the emotions of the morning and Beca laid on the sofa with him on top, stroking his hair and back softly to make him sleepy. She had given him a shower, and lend him a big cotton shirt of her so he was in his underwear and with the big shirt, more comfortable.

"Mommy?" Allen asked after a while.

"Hmm?"

"Now that you remember us… Can we be a family again like before?"

"Baby, it's more complicated than that…" Beca kissed his head "Look, I love you and your mamma, but I don't love her the way I love Chloe. Yeah, I remember you two, but we all have new lives too, hopefully better ones that will make us happier. But we're always going to be a family, okay Allen? Don't let anybody ever make you believe otherwise. We are a family. But there are many kinds of families, some have two parents, some have one, some have two dads, some have two moms, some have a mom and a dad, and I'd say some even have three parents. Some don't have human children but pets, and they're still a family. Some have neither, and are still a family. We are a family. But our family is composed by your mom, her side of the family and whoever she ever dates, you, and me, my side of the family and whoever I date. Chloe is my family and therefore, maybe one day if she and I were still together and our relationship was older and stronger, maybe then she could be part of your family and you part of hers. Just like with your mom. We are a family even if mamma and I aren't together, and our family grows by my side and by your mom's, but you're still part of it, and our favorite boy. And if any of us had more children, they'd be your siblings, just like in any other family."

"Promise?" Allen whispered.

"I promise." Beca loved putting her face buried in Allen's hair and closed her eyes enjoying the embrace "You can come here anytime because this is your home too. We barely just moved here, but I'll make sure you get a bedroom here, so you can have your stuff if you want too, and maybe we can set some days for me to pick you up at school and we spend them together, or some weekends we could take Chloe and Lindsay and the four of us could go somewhere nice. How does that sound for you?"

"I'd love that." Allen smiled burying his face on her chest, and she smiled widely. This could be nice, living like this.

Chloe, Jesse and Aubrey came back later, Aubrey usually picked Jesse and Chloe up, and she had informed them of the morning's events, since Beca hadn't called them because they were teaching classes. They arrived the house and found Beca and Allen sleeping on the sofa.

"This doesn't look like a barbecue." Jesse joked. Chloe rolled her eyes and palmed Beca's cheek softly to wake her up.

"Wake up, you promised barbecue and we brought the empty stomachs." Chloe said with a smirk. Beca woke up and smiled kissing her on the lips.

"Damn yes I did. I guess we fell asleep, but we're on it. Come on sweetheart, time to cook!" Beca said enthusiastically waking Allen up.

"Five minutes!" Allen begged.

A while later Beca was teaching Allen all about barbecues, cooking in their garden. They spent a nice day together and, when night came, Lindsay invited Beca and Chloe to dinner, so they drove with Allen to the house.

"Did you have a nice day?" Beca asked Chloe with a tiny smile putting a hand on her thigh and looking at her adoringly while the redhead was driving. Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, and it's about to be even better." Chloe smiled squeezing Beca's hand on her thigh, not wanting to put her eyes away from the road. She was very careful driving since her brother Michael had died in a car crash.

As Chloe had imagined, the dinner went smoothly and they had a nice time. Allen's face looked better, and Chloe had been occasionally putting some ice in his face while he helped Beca with the barbecue around noon. She was very caring with Allen and had gotten pissed off when Beca told her what had happened at the school, also Beca really enjoyed seeing Chloe and Lindsay both talking trash about Allen's school during dinner.

Fortunately, they'd be able to fix it in the morning. With that in thought, Beca cuddled against Chloe that night, the redhead already pretty sleepy.

"I want to get one of the rooms ready for Allen to stay here whenever he wants." Beca whispered hugging Chloe from behind and kissing her shoulder "If that's alright?"

"Sure." Chloe moved her face so her cheek brushed against Beca's "Are you still planning to visit your father?"

"Yeah…" Beca nodded "And I was thinking of bringing Allen with me. This weekend." Beca said.

"Allen? Why? Your father is a disgusting man to put Allen close."

"I know but I just want him to meet him. My mom will meet him too, soon. I told Lindsay and she thought it was a very nice idea, so maybe I'll call my mom tomorrow and see if she can come before the weekend. I don't want my father to have the privilege of meeting Allen before my mom."

"Good." Chloe moved a hand to put it over the hand Beca had resting on Chloe's upper arm "Rest babe, you'll need it." Beca nodded kissing her on the cheek.

"Sweet dreams dorky." Chloe smiled and Beca felt her fall asleep shortly after.

Everything went as Beca expected. The same day they got the Principal to admit Allen back to school, Ruth came for dinner and to spend a couple days, which were spent wisely in bonding with the little boy, who quickly fell in love with his grandma. But Beca had already let the boy know that meeting his grandpa wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Hello Rebeca." Jordan saluted coldly opening the door to his house one Saturday "We're alone as you requested. Come in."

"Great." Beca pulled an arm around Allen's shoulders and guided him to the living room, both sitting on the sofa.

"Why are you here?" Jordan said directly, sitting in front of them.

"Well, I wanted to introduce you to Allen. My son." Beca said just as coldly as her father. Jordan eyed Allen curiously for a few seconds and nodded slowly.

"I see. Nice to meet you, Allen." Jordan offered his hand and Allen, dubious, looked at Beca before shaking it "I didn't know you had been pregnant, although he looks nothing like a Mitchell." Jordan said looking at Beca.

"He isn't a Mitchell. He's the son of a friend who passed away and my ex wife and one of my best friends." Beca explained "I was never pregnant with him, but that doesn't make him any less my son. I saw him come to this world, I was there all his life, I helped raise him, and I adopted him as my own legally." Jordan nodded and crossed his arms above his chest, leaning back. He then sighed.

"Alright, great to know. I still don't see why you came here, why you are introducing me to Allen. Last time you came here things didn't end well and you were quite pissed off for not having been the father you'd have liked, now you want me back?"

"Oh, no." Beca sighed and leaned forward "Look, I've thought tons about this. I hate you. I can't love a man who never tried to protect me from someone like mom, who was hurting me physically, a man who never took interest in his daughter, a man who ignored his own family's issues on purpose and never even tried to give his wife some help, thinking the best thing to do was leaving..."

"I never knew Ruth was hurting you…" Jordan started, interrupting her.

"Because you refused to listen to me! I tried to tell you a thousand times, dad." Beca surprised herself using the nickname and Jordan stared at her surprised. Beca bit her lip trying to keep herself together "I tried to tell you and you ignored me. You were always working, and you know what? Eventually my memory came back, and funnily enough, I still barely have memories of you, not because I have a bad memory, but because you just weren't there and when I look at the pictures of you and me, you don't even seem to like me one bit."

"Rebeca, you can't try to understand what our situation was. My marriage wasn't happy and you looked far too much like her, and I guess I couldn't feel as much affection towards you as I would've liked, because when I looked at you I saw your drunken mother." Jordan said kinder than Beca had ever heard his voice be "I still cared about you, but I chose to put me first because I thought I was the only one being mistreated. I thought your mother treated me like shit and treated you like a princess. And honestly before you were born our lives were quite happy, so I guess maybe I resented you."

"You blamed me for it?" Beca was hurt and Allen contemplated Jordan with disgust.

"Maybe I did Rebeca. I don't know. When your grandma, Jude, was around, it was all easier. Of course she didn't like me, but it gave me the chance to deal more with your mother without you around all the time. At first, we were happy, but you were still very, very little when your mother started being bitchy and I'm a lawyer Rebeca, I love my job and it made me feel better than being around her. So I worked. Maybe I didn't do things the right way, but I dealt the best I could and still refused to leave you behind. Yeah, I cheated with Jillian but because she loved me and made me feel good again, and Robert was an accident, but was a kid I could love and who loved me. Your mother left me, I had no control over what happened to you, she wouldn't let me take you, and I couldn't prove to any jury she was a drunk and drugged up woman because she managed to always show up presentable." Jordan shrugged "But things are the way they are, and now you love your mother? Well I don't understand that. Because she treated me like if I was nothing, and now that you tell me she treated you more or less the same, I don't see why any of us should feel any affection towards her."

"You know why I love her?" Beca said. Jordan looked down "I love her because she changed. She never stopped trying to find me when I left her house back in 2007. I ran away and she got cleaned up, realized she had been the worst, and rehabilitated, got a good job, did everything she could to find me and once she did, she did all she could to get me to talk to her. She was always keeping an eye on me from the distance even if I hated her, she didn't give up, and she apologized a hundred times for all she ever did. She came to my house bothered to meet my girlfriend and bond with her and with me, and back then I got sick and she was there for me, taking care of me and helping my girlfriend all she could at home so I could rest. She regrets the person she was, she cleaned her name, and she has done all she could to come back into my life. Allen, wasn't your grandma playing with you all day yesterday?"

"And she taught me how to make chocolate cookies." Allen said with a little smile. Beca smiled ruffling his hair before bringing him close and kissing him on the check.

"I see…" Jordan nodded.

"And what have you done?" Beca went back to her father "Let me see… for all I can remember, you were always working, never home. And I remember being eight and starting seeing mom drunk, crying because she missed you, saying you didn't like her anymore, that's why she started. Because you were an awful absent husband, it was your fault Jordan." Beca pointed an accusatory finger "And then you got more and more absent until you left with Jillian. Yeah, ultimately my mom was the one who took me away, but you were gone already, even if officially you lived with us, you were never there!"

"I wanted to take you with m…"

"I don't care, Jordan!" Beca breathed deeply to calm herself down "All I care is that you were never there for mom, and never for me, for eight years, eight years in which I was there and mom was still okay. You had eight fucking years, so don't blame it on mom's issues. You wanna blame it on me, because your life was better off without me? Fine. But be honest and recognize it's your own fault. You could've prevented mom from getting bad, and you could've helped her afterwards. And me."

They sat in silence for a bit, thoughtful.

"Why did you bring Allen here?" Jordan whispered finally.

"Because he doesn't have grandparents except mom and you. The others died." Beca said "And I had this weird thought that he deserved to get to see you face to face and know the kind of man you are. And that if you wanted to redeem yourself, look, you're never gonna be… anything, to me. But you can be his grandpa, if you do it well, if he never has a complaint, and if you never let him close to that woman you call your wife."

Jordan nodded.

"Thanks." Jordan said sincerely "Well, it was really nice to have this visit. Really." He said without sarcasm, and Beca nodded taking Allen's hand and getting up "I will call you, okay?" He said grabbing Beca's arm before they left.

"Fine." Beca said pulling from her arm to let it free.

"Allen, would you mind waiting for your mom in the car for a moment? Just a minute." Jordan told Allen with a tiny smile. Allen looked at Beca, who smiled stroking his head.

"Go to the car Allen, I'll be right there. Here, take the keys and lock yourself in while I finish here." Her car was parked right in front of the house so Beca watched him from the door "So?" She asked looking at Jordan.

"What did she do to you, Rebeca?" Jordan asked. Beca looked confused "Please." Beca rolled her sleeve and showed him faint scars of burns from cigarettes.

"She also insulted me, a lot. I had to do all the tasks at home except the meals, and if I did it wrong, she would insult me more, throw me things…" the memories stung in Beca's memory now so clearly at first when her mom appeared at her house two days ago she had gotten a bit rude with her, until they talked a little and Ruth apologized again "She pulled my hair. Kicked me, yelled at me. She was rude and forceful and made me feel guilty for everything that ever went wrong."

"Jesus." Jordan sighed.

"Yeah." Beca nodded "Can I ask you something?" she asked, looking at Allen in the car.

"Yes." Jordan shrugged.

"Jillian is completely different from mom, what do you even see in her?" Beca asked, to which he smiled a little.

"She was amazing at the beginning, like everyone I guess. Now I must admit that she has become some weird snob with very little sense of fashion. But she always made me feel like home and gave me good memories." He explained "You like that girl, Chloe, right?" Beca nodded "Then do yourself a favor Beca, and make sure you know who you're with before you get any more serious with her. People change when you think you know them the most."

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	22. Chapter 22

_This chapter gets very very sexy and +18 so… you've been warned ;)_

 _So, I know it's been long… guess what, life got in the middle. I am abandoning the writing of Pitch Perfect for now (I've written so many bechloe stories it feels like it's time to take a break) and I'm gonna be writing original stuff down in fiction press, but it feels right to first give you all the last few chapters of my uncompleted bechloe stories. Merry Christmas you all._

 **Chapter 22: Who you are.**

As the days went by, the wedding planning became more and more frantic. Beca, now that she remembered everything, had decided to start some sessions with a psychologist that helped her deal with her troubled past, about which she didn't talk much, and she was also recovering all the lost time with Allen and Lindsay, wanting to be much more of a present parent than her dad had ever been, and even more, wanting to be a good parent, which is never an easy task. Chloe and Jesse had become good teachers at the university and were enjoying their classes, and Chloe had been seeing a therapist from time to time because she found things weren't as good as she thought with herself after she had come back to the States, with all that had happened; Aubrey was slowly gaining herself a good name in the medical field; and Beca was studying her ass off, although her schedule was pretty busy, but recovering her memories had given her many happy things, one of them remembering how to properly play piano and guitar, that she now played quite good, having bought a little keyboard and all. Everyone was really stressed those days because of all the planning plus their normal occupations, but finally the night before the big day came.

The wedding was going to be a beach party, shoes would be left forgotten soon and they would just be dancing until the sun rose. But as for that night, they were at a restaurant close by, just the four of them, enjoying one last night of being four unmarried people. Jesse's bachelor party had been a funny event with some friends of his that had come a few weeks before, and Aubrey's had been a night out partying that Beca had left early because her head wasn't for those parties yet in the moment, but she was confident she'd have a blast at the wedding regardless.

"Well, to the Swansons, may you be happily ever after!" Chloe rose her glass and grinned as they toasted.

They had a great night and it almost felt like the old times in India, but Beca was just happy of being around Chloe in such intimate way as now they had been together for seven months, more than half a year, which was awesome.

"I love you." Beca whispered to Chloe's ear at one point during the dinner. Chloe grinned at her and brought her close for a kiss.

"By the way lovebirds, I'm expecting one of you to catch the bouquet" Aubrey said winking at them. Chloe giggled against Beca's lips and Beca turned red from head to toe.

"You are so beautiful…" Chloe said later that night, observing from the bed as Beca threw her pajamas on. Beca smiled shaking her head.

"Well just like you then."

"No, you're ten times prettier." Chloe put an arm around Beca's neck the second the brunette went to get under the covers and brought her close, kissing her on the lips. The kiss quickly heated up.

"Babe…" Beca pulled apart "I'd love to, I really do, like I can't wait to have you all…" Beca bit her lip and shook her head trying to get those sexy thoughts out of her mind "But we are bridesmaids, which means we gotta get up early or the bride will murder us both." Chloe pouted "I know baby." Beca kissed her again and then just cuddled against her. Chloe sighed.

"You're right, knowing Aubrey…" Beca laughed and Chloe giggled along "Well, goodnight love."

Beca and Chloe would've been sleepy in the morning if it wasn't because Aubrey infected them with her glee and excitement first thing in the morning. They had to admit that Aubrey looked just radiant and like a frigging queen in her wedding dress. It wasn't so complex, compared to other dresses, but it just fit Aubrey perfectly, the same Aubrey Beca knew in India who would wear overalls and big t-shirts and just hang with her watching a movie or something.

"Ready?" Chloe said hugging Aubrey from behind, they both looking at the mirror. Aubrey grinned and nodded.

"Hell yeah."

Beca had to admit it was hard for her not to cry during the ceremony, by the beach, in a big terrace that was over the sand. Chloe, however, cried shamelessly with a smile in her face as her two best friends gave the "I do". And then there was the party.

A tiny stage had been put on the sand, down at the beach, and over the sand there were many posts with colorful lights that slowly changed color, and there were cables over their heads with small balls of lights hanging too. There was a lot of people, everyone dressed elegantly enough for a beach wedding, family of the Swansons, friends, everyone. There was music from a band sounding softly in the background, and soon they were having lunch right there, enjoying it.

"A moment please!" Chloe said standing up to do the typical best friend speech, with a glass on her hand and a grin on her face. Everyone shut up and paid attention to her "I'm Chloe and I have the pleasure of being Jesse and Aubrey's best friend ever since university. I don't know if their story is the closest to destiny I've ever known but first day in Barden, Jesse and I were sitting together in the same archeology class, both bored about the same teacher" some people giggled "and Jesse started making jokes and making me laugh and before I knew it we were talking about movies and paying zero attention to that teacher. We both failed that subject that semester." Some laughs were heard and she smiled "Jesse, he's my best friend, my buddy. He's like a brother to me, and he has always acted like such. Aubrey, we got together at the university's a cappella group, the Barden Bellas. Aubrey was a perfectionist who liked love songs far too much, and I just loved her from day one." Aubrey smiled affectionately at Chloe "It was a matter of time before I got them both together, and they just clicked since day one and have been dating ever since. It was such that, when three years ago Jesse and I decided to move to New Delhi to work, Aubrey came with us, which always stupefied me because she's a doctor, and back then we were just two aspirants to Indiana Jones talking about old bones and smelling like dust and having sand between our nails, but at the end of the day, we'd sit watching some movie and it didn't matter how different we were, we couldn't help being best friends. I never felt like a third wheel because they never let me, we're a team, and that has never changed, not even when I've been with someone myself. They either accept my best friends or there's the door." Chloe commented, people smiling kindly at her "Guys, you're my siblings and you know I love you with my whole heart. I love living in front of you and I love when every morning you, my girl and I can get in the same car and just chat animatedly in our way to work." Chloe smiled with teary eyes looking at the just married, Jesse hugging Aubrey with one arm, both looking very pleased and happy "I couldn't have better people next to me for all the adventures life has in store for us, and I hope our friendship last forever, because I'm so gonna be your kiddos' aunty. I wish you all the best, knowing that as you two are, nothing's ever gonna get in your way. Let's raise our glasses for Mister and Madame Swanson!" everyone cheered and the clicks of the glasses sounded, Beca smiling seeing Chloe and the Swansons hug together.

Later, some of Aubrey's work mates came and gifted her with her new medical coat, that instead of saying Dr. A. Posen, had a neat Dr. A. Swanson instead, and Aubrey almost cried. The wedding was going smoothly and soon it was the time for the first dance of the just married couple, and Beca and Chloe got on stage with some of the old Barden Bellas, friends of Chloe that Beca had the pleasure to met, serving as chorus, and some of the Swanson's friends that played instruments taking their place on stage too. The Swansons had decided that their friends performed most of the music of the night, if they wanted -which of course they wanted- because it made it all the more special, plus the band they had hired were actually friends of Aubrey from University, so they were more than pleased to collaborate when needed or step back.

"Okay, time for your first slow dance as the Swansons guys. Let's clear the area!" Chloe yelled with micro in hand. Beca got in the piano and the band stepped back except for a couple Bellas who took micros, like Beca, two do the chorus of the song. The first piano notes started as Jesse smiled taking Aubrey and dancing with her, both barefoot on the sand " _Wise men say, only fools rush in… But I can't help falling in love with you._ " Chloe started singing, smiling happily, her eyes looking lovingly at Beca, who was focused in the piano, from time to time. " _Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can't help falling in love with you…_ " Chloe continued, and Beca smiled at her moving her lips to say without a sound the same words " _Like a river flows surely to the sea, darling so it goes… Some things… Are meant to be… Take my hand, take my whole life too… For I can't help falling in love with you_ " Chloe kept singing, Beca, a girl named Jessica, and a girl who called herself 'Fat Amy' doing the choruses " _Like a river flows surely to the sea… Darling so it goes… Some things are meant to be…_ " Now for the last part Beca sang along with Chloe but softer so Chloe's voice was more of a protagonist, both looking at each other lovingly as they sang " _Take my hand, take my whole life too… For I can't help falling in love with you. For I can't help falling in love with you._ " Everybody got up and applauded, including Jesse and Aubrey, who were relieved for not having to dance alone anymore which, as pretty as it sounds, was also incredibly embarrassing.

The band took the stage again and Beca took a guitar and stood beside Chloe, giving her a quick peek.

"Everybody let's dance!" Beca yelled to the microphone. Chloe laughed at her child of a girlfriend.

"Ready to move a bit more?" Everybody yelled 'yeah!' altogether at the dancing zone, removing their shoes quickly to dance their life out, even children. The music started sounding " _Hands, put your empty hands in mine. And scars, show me all the scars you hide! And hey, if your wings are broken, please take mine so yours can open, too… 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you_." Chloe and Beca looked at each other as Chloe sang, both lovingly staring, forgetting about the rest of the world as if only the other one was there.

" _Oh, tears make kaleidoscopes in your eyes, and hurt, I know you're hurting, but so am I. And love, if your wings are broken, borrow mine 'til yours can open, too… 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you_." Beca sang to Chloe, the multitude already dancing excitedly and some singing alone.

" _Even if we're breaking down, we can find a way to break through, even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you! Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you. Even if we can't find heaven, I'm gonna stand by you! Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you! Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you_." Both Beca and Chloe sang together, Beca playing the guitar and the band accompanying with the rest of the instruments too.

" _Yeah, you're all I never knew I needed_ " Beca sang " _And the heart—sometimes it's unclear why it's beating. And, love, if your wings are broken, we can brave through those emotions, too. 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you._ "

" _Oh, truth—I guess truth is what you believe in._ " Chloe sang now " _And faith—I think faith is having a reason. And I know now, love, if your wings are broken, borrow mine 'til yours can open, too. 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you._ "

" _Even if we're breaking down, we can find a way to break through. Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you. Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you, even if we can't find heaven, I'm gonna stand by you. Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you. Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you._ " Chloe and Beca were singing together.

" _I'll be your eyes 'til yours can shine._ " Chloe sang.

" _And I'll be your arms._ " Beca sang.

" _I'll be your steady satellite. And when you can't rise, well, I'll crawl with you on hands and knees. 'Cause I... I'm gonna stand by you_." They both sang together, both dancing playfully too as they sang " _Even if we're breaking down, we can find a way to break through. Even if we can't find heaven! I'll walk through hell with you. Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you! Even if we can't find heaven, I'm gonna stand by you! Even if we can't find heaven… I'll walk through hell with you! Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you. Love, you're not alone. Oh, I'm gonna stand by you. Yeah, I'm gonna stand by you_." The music stopped and everyone applauded. Beca kissed Chloe.

"Okay, I'm gonna throw the bouquet!" Aubrey yelled over the noise climbing to the stage -that Beca and Chloe quickly descended- with the flowers in hand "Everyone get ready! Chloe you better get your ass there!" Chloe laughed taking Beca's hand and finding a good place to catch it. They were just playful about it. But when Aubrey turned around and threw it back, it practically fell on Chloe's arms, and Beca was there to see the happiness and surprise in her eyes.

The water was amazing.

That was the first thing Beca thought when everyone started changing into their pajamas and getting in the water, dancing and jumping. Riptide was sounding strongly and Beca and Chloe were dancing and laughing in the water, and everything was, for a moment, perfect.

"I'm gonna miss you like crazy!" Chloe jumped on Jesse on the water and he caught her, laughing. That night they were going to Spain, where they would spend two weeks of honeymoon.

"Aww, we'll miss you too!" Jesse hugged her.

" _And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love… Great clouds roll over the hills bringing darkness from above…_ " Aubrey started to sing alone with the band and Jesse, Beca and Chloe joined practically drunk yelling " _But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all? And if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like you've been here before?_ "

"That was one hell of a party." Beca said entering their bedroom around five in the morning and stirring, throwing her heels away and already stumbling with removing her dress.

"Oh, that was just the beginning…" Chloe said sensually hugging Beca from behind, kissing the back of her neck.

"Hmm really?" Beca closed her eyes leaning into the kisses happily.

Instead of answering, Chloe pulled the zipper of Beca's dress down, the muscular back of the veteran being left uncovered.

[A/N: +18 part.]

Soon, Beca and Chloe were passionately making out on their bed, their clothes long forgotten on the floor, their hands travelling all over each other. There were no words, they were needn't, since everything was said and proven physically. Chloe's hands travelled through Beca's body, squeezing her breasts lovingly before stroking her abs tenderly passing her fingers over old scars. Beca moaned against Chloe's lips and her pupils dilated seeing Chloe's lips go down to capture her nipples, making the brunette's back arch and her eyes close. Beca put her legs around Chloe's torso to pull her close, and the redhead went up with her lips, quickly pressing them against Beca's again, their tongues dancing together as Chloe's thigh pressed softly against Beca's vaginal lips.

"Fuck." Beca breathed out against Chloe's lips.

"On it, sweetheart…" Chloe whispered, her lips traveling to Beca's neck and holding her earlobe between her teeth pressing softly. Beca's hands wandered towards Chloe's chest, the taller woman being on top of her, and caressed her breasts using her thumbs to play with her nipples softly, making Chloe moan against her neck, breathing out air that tickled Beca, who kept moaning as that thigh kept making constant pressure against her most intimate part. That night they didn't want some quick and rough fucking session, but soft and tender making love, after having spent their entire day at a love celebration.

"Let me eat you out." Beca demanded searching Chloe's lips with her own, kissing her lovingly. Chloe moved to put her cunt above Beca's lips and the brunette started licking her length and pressing with her tongue. Chloe was whimpering and moaning heavily as her hands landed on Beca's boobs, that she stroked as she found Beca's clit with her lips and sucked it, making Beca moan against her. Beca's fingers moved to stroke Chloe's clit insistently while Beca worked her tongue inside of her girlfriend, who moaned moving her hips against her face, her own fingers starting to enter Beca, who let a grunt mixed with a long moan out.

[End of +18.]

After having finished and cleaned themselves out, the couple laid spooning on the bed, Beca, despite being the smaller of the two, was the big spoon. They were just enjoying the post coital bliss and relax.

"Your tongue did things I swear I've never…" Chloe commented suddenly, making Beca laugh at the spontaneous commentary. There was a bit of silence until Beca spoke in a whisper against the back of Chloe's neck.

"Well now that I remember my days as an escort, I thought I may as well use the few tricks I've remembered for good." Beca said it on the sly, but Chloe's eyes snapped open and she turned around to look at Beca, who bit her lip looking slightly embarrassed.

"You hadn't said you remembered that." Chloe whispered tenderly. Beca nodded.

"It didn't exactly come to any conversation. I wasn't gonna be like 'hey Chlo, those macaroni smell delicious, by the way, did you know I was an escort and fucked a ton of men and women before'?" Chloe shrugged and nodded slowly.

"Are you okay about it?" Chloe asked after a while.

"I was seventeen when I ran away from my mom's house in San Francisco." Beca sighed, turning to lie on her back, her hands on her belly and her eyes wandering around the ceiling. Chloe supported her head on a hand, sensing Beca was about to open up a little "I remember it like if it was yesterday, which is weird having in count a few weeks ago it was all foggy and hollow. I remember the rush of adrenaline packing the few belongings I appreciated the most in a backpack, my guitar in one hand, and running away from my house and my neighborhood. Running until my legs felt like jelly and the adrenaline passed and then it came the fear and the worry and the 'what the fuck have I done'. But I remember feeling so free and happy because regardless of being homeless and not having any idea what to do with my life, I knew I was never going to let anybody treat me like my mother again. I was free of stupid parents and ready to do my own thing. I had sort of planned it for months and had savings and stuff, and I thought I could be a musician, make it to Los Angeles and be a musician. I thought if so many famous people had been discovered like working in McDonalds, I could get my name too. So I spent the whole day half running half walking south until I reached San José."

"That's a long distance…" Chloe commented, Beca nodded.

"It is. Whole freaking day, until well into the night. When I made it there it was past midnight, everything was closed, I had nowhere to sleep, I had eaten a bunch of the food I had stolen from my mom's -from then on I started really rationing my food- and I was refilling a water bottle in public fountains. I was exhausted, my feet where battered despite having taken some of my most comfortable shoes, and I knew I had a similar walk for the next day. I still had the rush of adrenaline of knowing when my mom left her stupor of drugs and alcohol and realized I was gone there was a chance she sent the cops after me, and also many times I thought of coming back. But I didn't. I got into the woods, found a hidden space between trees, used my backpack as a pillow and hugging my guitar, fell asleep on the grass. I had a cell phone and I had bought five batteries knowing I'd had it hard to find a place to plug a charger, so the use was very limited, but it helped me a couple times, and I always set alarms to sleep six hours tops. Just minimal rest and keep going, always afraid of being kidnapped, raped, or stolen the crap out of me." Beca explained. She spoke as if she was talking about fruit, completely normal. And despite how exhausted Chloe felt, she was so awake and focused in Beca's words "The next day I walked the thirty something miles that are between San José and Santa Cruz. There I spent some money on the cheapest motels ever, feeling like I'd faint if I didn't have a decent night of sleep and a decent meal. The place treated me well, fortunately. Then I played some music for the owners in the morning and they liked it so much they gave me 5 dollars."

"My awesome musician…" Chloe smiled pressing her lips against Beca's arm, a hand over Beca's hands on her belly. Beca smiled a little bit.

"The owners of the motel then introduced me to this hippie woman in her thirties who was planning on going to LA the following day and could get me there. She was super nice and enchanted to do so, saying that's how she started, but in exchange, I had to sleep with her around three times around the way there."

"Shit." Chloe sighed. Beca nodded slowly.

"I didn't want to sell my body yet. But once we made it there I told her I'd let her finger my ass for a hundred dollars. I thought I really needed the money, it was for surviving and it would just be one time thing." Beca laughed sarcastically and Chloe squeezed her hand "So I was left alone in Los Angeles, a bit richer than I was, and much more sexually experienced. It wasn't that horrible really, apart from the fact that some woman acceded to fuck a minor, but well. She did save me a little back then. Since it had taken so little to make it there, I spent the day walking around the city as a tourist and playing music, and people actually paid well. Some tried to steal me but couldn't. I was intelligent enough to make sure not to leave trail, not to be followed, and to choose my sleeping places super wisely." Beca commented "After a few weeks in Los Angeles, I decided I had to find another plan. Starting by finding a place to settle and leave my stuff while working at a bar or anywhere I could. LA wouldn't make that easy in the slightest, so I decided I had to move, and I heard some good stuff about San Diego. Took me a few days but between cars I got to get into and walking, I made it there. There I met Ms. Carton." Beca explained.

"That's the lady who died?" Chloe asked to confirm her thoughts.

"Yes." Beca nodded "She lived in the streets. She introduced me to the free canteens for people with no money, and from time to time we could get a bed in refugees for street people too, but it wasn't often so many times we just slept in the streets. She reminded me of granny Jude, and she was just as caring with me. It was when she died that I decided I had to run. And when I got in the band I got a warm bed every night and no one ever tried to steal things from me. It was just some cushions on the floor and a blanket, but it was more than enough for me. We were a family. I had been working at a waitress from time to time, but it wasn't paying properly. And when clients started flirting heavily… I gave in. I set the prize first, and only slept with women, to avoid pregnancies and illnesses, never did oral either. That was around the time Lindsay and I started working and I just wanted to provide money for Allen. Buy us a nice house, at least get to rent an apartment. In that time, I got a bit drunk far too often and started trying some drugs to get through the weeks. When Lindsay found out, she and the band made an intervention, and I stopped being an escort, got cleaned up, which was one of the hardest things I've ever done and in which the band helped incredibly, and once I was alright, Lindsay and I teamed up to work at some restaurants, bars, pubs… we never made much, but it was enough." Beca explained "I've stolen things for survival. I've sold myself. I'm not proud of any of it, but I think when I got into the Army, part of it was for the money and the being maintained, but another part was as a repay to society, you know? Give back what I had stolen, feel more of a woman and less of a whore, feel strong and powerful again, make a name… I wanted to feel some pride of myself, and I wanted to do good."

"You did Becs. You did." Chloe kissed her in the cheek. Beca looked at her and smiled a little.

"I'm sorry you've ended up with someone like me, with a complicated past and…"

"Sh…" Chloe put a finger in her lips "Why would anybody have to be sorry for me ending up with the best person there is?" Chloe smirked and Beca raised her eyebrows in surprise "You only see what you've endured as something to be… ashamed? Of… but I see it as a mountain you've climbed and you should be proud of having done that. Look at you. How could I ever not be proud of you?"

"You're proud? Of me?"

"Of course I am." Chloe grinned "You're beautiful, stronger, tougher, you seek justice and peace, you're honorable and kind, and you always try to do the right thing. You went through hell and survived. You won the worst of your battles. Hell, I'm so proud of you baby, I couldn't be happier of getting to tell everyone I'm dating someone like you." They kissed softly and Chloe put some of Beca's hair away from her face and behind her ear "You know? You may look a lot like Jordan, but inside, you're just as strong and good person as Ruth is.

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